The Darkness Within The Light
by Volans
Summary: Harry’s lost his parents, Sirius and any chance at a normal life because of a prophecy. Unfortunately the prophecy Harry was told isn’t the real one. Dumbledore changed it to hide the true savior at the expense of the Potters. Harry is about to find out.
1. Revelations

**Disclaimer: Nothings mine, its all Rowling's.**

**Chapter 1 – Revelations**

As his uncle's car pulled away from the curb Harry Potter looked out the rear window watching sadly as Kings Cross Station disappeared in the distance along with his friends. When the station was out of sight he turned forward and leaned against the door. With nothing else to do Harry lost himself in his thoughts as he watched the scenery go by on his way back to Number Four Private Drive.

Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts had ended in disaster with the death of his godfather and Harry couldn't help but feel that it was entirely his fault. Well not entirely, no doubt Bellatrix Lestrange was to blame for casting the curse that sent him to his death behind the veil but Sirius should never have been there to begin with and that was definitely his fault. Lost in his thoughts Harry failed to notice the looks of concern he was receiving from his cousin Dudley and his aunt Petunia though his aunt seemed torn between her concern for his emotional state and her intense dislike of the young wizard.

It wasn't long before the car came to a stop in the driveway of number four. Vernon exited the vehicle and made his way inside without a single comment or glance towards Harry, ignoring him completely as if he had never existed. Petunia followed not far behind though Harry noticed she looked at him several times on her way to the front door. The expression on her face was one that Harry found impossible to describe and with an internal shrug let it go.

Walking to the back of the car he was surprised to find Dudley waiting for him.

"Dudley?" he asked as he eyed his cousin curiously.

Dudley had trouble meeting his eyes and seemed almost nervous to be talking to Harry. "I um well I just thought you might want a hand with your trunk and stuff."

"Ok." Harry said slowly slightly suspicious of what his motives might be.

Harry carried Hedwig's empty cage while his much larger cousin carried his trunk. When they reached Harry's room Dudley deposited the trunk at the foot of the bed and waited for Harry to put the cage in its spot on top of the dresser.

After setting down the cage, Harry turned towards his cousin. "What's going on Dud? Why are you helping me?"

Dudley took a deep breath. "I wanted to thank you for saving me from those things last summer. It took a while but I finally got mum to tell me what they were and I know what they would have done to me if you weren't there so thanks."

Harry gave his cousin a small nod. "Don't worry about it, they were sent after me in the first place so it's kind of my fault they were here at all."

Dudley nodded in return. "Well anyway those things are kind of a shock to the system you know? I thought about that night the rest of the summer and all year while I was away at school and well I know I've never really been that nice to you but I was hoping maybe we could start over and maybe be friends or if not then I at least want you to know I won't mess with you anymore."

Harry was a bit shocked. A newer kinder Dudley was something he had not been expecting when he returned from school. "Alright Dud." he replied a bit confused about how to deal with the new Dudley.

Smiling slightly as he left the room Dudley waved to his cousin, "Later Harry."

As the door closed behind Dudley leaving Harry alone in his room his thoughts of being a party to Sirius murder returned full force. Slumping into the seat at his desk Harry placed his head in his hands. His shoulders began to shake and tears streaked down his cheeks as the grief he had been experiencing since his godfathers death took hold.

"Harry… Harry…"

Harry raised his head wiping the tears from his face as he turned to see who was calling him. He jumped up from his seat and backed quickly away his eyes open wide at the sight of the ghostly apparition that was floating before him.

"S… S… Sirius?" he managed to stutter out. His heart pounded wildly as he took in the sight of the ghost praying he was really here but not daring to believe it might be true.

"Hey Kiddo." was the reply from the grinning ghost.

"Is it really you?" Harry said his voice barely above a whisper as he asked the only question on his mind at the moment.

"Of course it's me. You don't think I'd leave you behind to deal with the load of crap that gets sent your way on your own do ya? Not a chance! Now come over here and give your favorite godfather a hug." Sirius said holding his arms open wide.

Not thinking about anything but the fact that his godfather was in the room with him Harry ran forward towards the embrace. He closed his eyes as he reached Sirius open arms but instead of being pulled into a hug Harry felt a wave of cold flow through him before landing unceremoniously in a heap on the bed Sirius had been floating in front of. As he shook off the chill and looked up he was greeted by the sight of a ghost doubled over in laughter.

"Sorry Harry I couldn't resist. I guess it's the marauder in Me." he said laughing.

Sirius laughter was infectious and soon Harry found himself laughing as hard as Sirius at the thought of his own stupidity.

"Thanks Sirius, I needed that." he said. As the laughter began to die down it didn't take Harry long to realize that though Sirius was in his room with him he was a ghost and he was a ghost because Harry had gotten him killed.

The tears returned to Harry's eyes as the mirth from Sirius prank vanished. "I'm so sorry Sirius. I didn't mean to get you killed, honestly."

"Hey, it's not your fault Kiddo. I know what happened and why you were there and I should be thanking you for trying to save me."

"But if I'd used the mirror, or listened to Herm…." Harry's self deprecating list was cutoff by Sirius before he could continue.

"No buts! Harry my death was in no way your fault. There's a lot you don't know about what's been going on. I was murdered that day in the Department of Mysteries but not by you. Hell, it wasn't really even Bellatrix that did it."

The comment about Bellatrix got Harry's full attention. "What do you mean? I was there. I saw Bellatrix hit you with the curse that sent you through the veil."

"Yes you were there, and yes you saw Bella hit me with the curse that sent me through the veil but there's a lot more going on than you know. Listen Harry, I'll tell you everything but first I need to know, do you trust me?"

"Of course." Harry quickly replied without a second thought.

"Do you believe me when I say that I will only tell you the truth?" Sirius then asked.

"Yes." Harry said wondering where he was going with this.

"Then the first thing I need you to know and to believe is that you are not the one who is responsible for my death. It's not your fault that I'm a ghost now." Sirius had moved to a position in front of Harry and was kneeling a few inches off the ground so that they were eye to eye. He watched as Harry nodded but he could see in his godson's eyes that he didn't quite believe it.

"Harry I promise you it's not your fault." Sirius reiterated softly and evenly the tone of his voice relaying the truth of his words. He could see the struggle within Harry, he wanted so badly to believe he wasn't the one responsible but he couldn't quite find it within himself to do so. Sirius hoped that by the time he was done explaining everything Harry would understand and stop blaming himself.

"Sirius, why are you here? I talked to Sir Nicholas at school and he said only magical people scared of death became ghosts. He said you wouldn't stay behind."

Sirius grinned as the focus of the conversation began to shift. "I had unfinished business Harry and I get to stay here until it's done."

"When's that?" Harry asked worried that Sirius was going to leave him again.

"My business is looking out for you, so I'll be around as long as you are." he replied giving Harry a large smile.

Harry's happiness was almost palpable in the room. He had Sirius back and he would never leave him.

"Anyway, you need to know what's going on kid. What do you know about why your parent's died?"

Harry quickly sobered at the thought of the Halloween night long ago that had cost him a happy life with his parents. "It was because of the Prophecy, because Voldemort came after me. Dumbledore told it to me the night I came back from the Ministry."

"Yeah, I bet he did." grumbled Sirius.

A look of confusion passed over Harry's face. "What?"

"Oh, never mind. Let me take a guess at what he told you. It was probably… 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies'… Does that sound about right?"

"Yes, that's it exactly. He told me no one else knew about it, how did you know it?"

Sirius was shaking his head, his eyes clearly showing the anger he felt towards Dumbledore. "That's not important, what's important is that it's not the real prophecy."

"It's not? But why would Dumbledore tell it to me if it wasn't real?" asked Harry now thoroughly confused.

"Because he created it to hide the person the real prophecy spoke of and he's still using it for that. Listen Harry, here's the way it really goes… 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to a line which has always defied him, born to the line of the lion. Hidden from the Dark Lord at the cost of the innocent, he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the second month dies.'"

Harry took in the words of the new prophecy trying to work out its meaning and connect all the little dots with the information Sirius was giving him.

After giving Harry a few minutes to absorb the new prophecy Sirius continued. "The first lines obvious so lets start with the second. 'Born to a line which has always defied him, born to the line of the lion.' Do you know anything about Dumbledore's family Harry?"

"Not really, I guess I never even thought he had a family."

"That's because their names were changed during the war with Grindelwald to protect them. They were hidden away so they couldn't be used against him and the name was never changed back later. His line continued through his son eventually coming to a man named Brian Goldman who apparently holds a power similar to Albus Dumbledore's. The Dumbledores are descended from Godric Gryffindor. The second line of the prophecy identifies Godric's line as being the one the savior would be born into which is Dumbledore's line."

Sirius waited a minute making sure Harry was following along before continuing. "That brings us to the third line, 'Hidden from the Dark Lord at the cost of the innocent, he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.'"

Harry slumped sadly realizing what it must mean as he listened to Sirius repeating it. "Me and my parents, we're the innocent."

Sirius nodded. "And Me." he added.

Harry looked up. "Why you?" he asked only to be waived off.

"We'll get to that in a little bit. The rest goes 'And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the second month dies'. The important part of this is 'born as the second month dies'. Brian Goldman was born on February 28th."

"So the real prophecy says that Dumbledore's grandson or whatever is the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord and my family was used to hide that?" Harry asked becoming angry as the pieces started coming together.

"Right in one Harry, Dumbledore modified the first two lines of the prophecy and leaked them to the Dark Lord to hide the fact that it was his family that it was about. Voldemort went after you thinking you were the only one who could defeat him. What Dumbledore didn't know was that when you went into hiding with your parents your mum and dad put a spell on you protecting you with their love. When they died protecting you it sealed the spell and Voldemort's killing curse rebounded on him leaving you with a scar and a weak magical connection to what remained of him. Dumbledore showed up expecting you to be dead. His plan was for Voldemort to think the prophecy had been fulfilled so he wouldn't even think to look for the real one or his grandson but instead you lived and Voldemort was reduced. Apparently he found the magical connection between you two which is how he knew Voldemort was still alive. Knowing he would return someday Dumbledore used magic to tie the connection to your scar and made the scar permanent. If he hadn't the connection would have faded away a long time ago and Madam Pomphrey could have easily removed the scar. He wanted to keep you in place and under his thumb for when Voldemort returned so he sent you here spouting a load of crap about blood protection instead of giving you to me like your parents had specified in their will."

Harry didn't know what to think on one hand he was crying inside over the needless loss of his parents and the life he ended up with. On the other hand he felt a boiling rage welling up inside him over what Dumbledore had done to his family.

"The blood protection isn't real?"

"Yes and no, it's real in that you're blood protects you because of your parents spell and sacrifice but the blood ward crap that Dumbledore's been touting is a load of garbage. You're safe here because of the wards Dumbledore has in place but they're nothing special, you'd actually be safer at Grimmauld Place because of the ancient wards and the Fidilius charm that are on it."

Harry was fuming. Sirius could see his godson clenching his fists and decided he needed to get Harry to calm down a bit before continuing.

"Easy Harry, there's lots more. You need to calm down a bit, think about pretty red heads or bushy haired brunettes, whichever you prefer for a minute." Harry shook his head and a small smile graced his lips at Sirius comments.

"Both?" Sirius asked with a grin.

Not knowing how to respond Harry looked like a stag caught in the headlights and just stuttered trying to come up with a response.

"Oh, so it's smart bushy haired girls then." Harry's godfather stated as though it was a matter of fact.

"What? No!"

"Ha! I knew it! You Potter's and your red headed women."

Sirius laughed out loud at the look on Harrys face, he wasn't surprised when Harry didn't deny it even though he didn't admit to it either. Mainly Sirius was just glad he was able to distract Harry for a bit with a normal teenage problem and get him to calm down.

"Anyway getting back to the matter at hand, after Dumbledore put you here he rewrote the rest of the prophecy to fit you and what happened that night and placed it in a globe in the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries. Like I said, he wanted you in place for when Old Voldy returned."

"What about the memory of Trelawny he showed me with his pensieve?"

"He's a master Occulmens isn't he?" Sirius asked though he clearly wasn't looking for a response to his question. "If you had been taught the art like you were supposed to be you would have learned how to create and feed false memories to someone using Legilimancy on you. That's all he really did was modify his memory of Trelawny giving him the real prophecy to her giving the one he made up and stuck it in a pensieve for you to view."

Harry nodded in understanding. "How do you know all this Sirius? Why didn't you tell me this before?"

Sirius sighed. "That actually brings us back to me being one of the 'innocents' mentioned in the prophecy. I overheard a conversation between Dumbledore and his grandson after an Order meeting at Grimmauld Place not long before the DOM thing. I didn't hear much just something about no one knowing about Brian being Dumbledore's grandson and Brian was saying something about wanting to kill Voldemort quickly to fulfill the prophecy before too many innocent people died. Dumbledore realized I was there and ended the conversation. After Brian left he confronted me wanting to know what I heard. I tried to play dumb but he knew. He threatened me to keep quite about their meeting and left. All kinds of red flags went up in my mind because the prophecy was supposed to be about you. I mean I only knew the first two lines of the false one at the time but it said you were the one with the power to kill the Dark Lord not Brian. Unfortunately before I could figure out what was going on and tell you about it I was sent through the veil."

"I still feel like I'm missing a piece of the story, how does Bellatrix cursing you through the veil make you one of the 'innocents'?" Harry asked.

"I've been doing some poking around since I came back to try and figure out the whole story and when I added everything up it didn't quite work out. Like you just said, there seemed to be a missing piece. So I finally decided to go see my cousin. Aside from you Bella is the only other person that knows I'm back here as a ghost. Did you catch any of the duel I was having with her while the fight was going on in the death chamber?"

"I saw a little bit of it." Harry replied

Sirius smiled at the thought of the duel with his cousin. "If you'd of been able to watch the whole thing you would have noticed she didn't use any unforgivables or dark arts."

Harry looked at Sirius with confusion etched all over his face. That doesn't make sense he thought.

The smile on Sirius face grew even bigger at the look of confusion his godson was giving him and he started nodding. "Yes," he said as he began to see understanding in his godsons eyes, "she wasn't trying to kill me or even hurt me very bad. Hell, we were having fun! The spells we were both using were all minor hexes and jinxes neither of us was casting anything stronger than a stunner. But towards the end it all changed she was hit with the imperious curse and told to use Avada Kedavra on me."

"What!" Harry exclaimed as he sat up straighter his eyes going wide.

"She fought the curse but wasn't able to completely throw its effects and ended up hitting me with a strong spell that threw me through the veil on accident. Like I said, it wasn't really her fault. In fact, she's in a pretty bad way right now too. We were each others favorite cousins when we were younger. We grew apart when Rodolphus dragged her in to the whole Death Eater thing. She never really meant to hurt me. She wants to meet so she can apologize to you Harry."

"Who cast the curse on her?" Harry asked though he suspected he already knew the answer.

Sirius sighed. "You already know but I'll tell you anyway. The voice she heard telling her what to do was Dumbledore's. We think he was in the room invisible when he cast the curse on her because he arrived to 'save the day' right after."

Harry was having trouble deciding weather to be sad or angry. Sirius moved from the chair he was hovering over to the floor in front of Harry. "Harry you need to understand that if I hadn't died that day in the Ministry it would have happened anyway. Dumbledore wanted, no needed me silenced. It's his fault I'm like this and no one else's, especially not yours."

Harry nodded and Sirius was happy to see that Harry now believed it. "So," Sirius said as he moved back to the chair with his trademark mischievous grin firmly in place, "now we just need to figure out what to do about all this. What do you want Harry?"

Harry grinned back at his godfather thrilled that he had been asked what he wanted rather than told what to do for once. "I want out. I want to be normal."

Sirius grin seemed to get impossibly larger. "Then that's what we'll do."

* * *

-

* * *

**AN:** There's the first chapter, I hope you like it. Please review and let me know what you think of my story idea. I've worked out an outline and though it will probably change a bit as I go it's currently set to be 30 chapters.  
I'm also still trying to figure out whom to pair Harry with. The options I'm considering right now are Hermione, Ginny, Bellatrix, Kaela Moore (an OC witch Harry's age you'll meet later) or none. Let me know what you'd like to see and why.  
Again, thanks for reading and please review! 


	2. The Dursley's

**Chapter 2 – The Dursley's**

Harry woke the next morning with a new sense of purpose and happiness. The weight of the world seemed to have lifted from his shoulders. Sirius and he had stayed up late into the night making plans and deciding what needed to be done and while Voldemort was still after him and he was still being controlled by Dumbledore he now had a new feeling of hope that it would all be over soon.

After showering and dressing for the day it was with a much lighter heart and a smile on his face that Harry went downstairs to join his relatives for breakfast.

Vernon ignored him as he had done the day before hiding behind his newspaper while he ate. Dudley sent a smile and a nod towards Harry and didn't even complain when Harry received a full plate of eggs, bacon and toast from his aunt while he was eating half of a grapefruit. Petunia continued to give him odd looks and seemed anxious about something.

Breakfast ended quickly and after placing his plate in the sink Harry returned to his room to talk with Sirius some more. They were working on their plans for the summer when there was a knock on Harry's bedroom door. Sirius quickly became invisible while Harry went to see who his visitor was. He was surprised when he opened the door to find his Aunt Petunia standing in the hallway holding a small grey book and looking rather nervous.

"Aunt Petunia."

"Harry, may I speak with you for a few minutes." she asked trying her best to keep her emotions in check.

Harry nodded and let her in directing her to his desk chair where she took a seat. Taking a seat on the bed just across from where she was sitting he waited patiently for her to begin.

"Harry," Petunia started before pausing while she tried to figure out how to say what she wanted, "I… I don't like you." She grimaced at her choice of words and the sad but accepting look on her nephews face.

"No, wait, you don't understand." Petunia quickly added watching his look change to one of confusion.

"I mean it's not that I don't like you, I don't but, I mean I don't know why I don't like you, Oh, I mean something's not right about it."

Harry watched his aunt curiously as she fumbled around trying to find the right words. "Aunt Petunia, are you ok?"

She took and deep breath and released it slowly before beginning. "I received a diary from a friend for Christmas." she said holding up the grey book she was carrying. "It seemed like an odd gift at first but with you and Dudley away at school and Vernon at work all day I decided to use it to pass some of my free time and started writing in it every day." Petunia ran her fingers lightly over the embossed cover of the small book as she spoke.

"There's not a lot that goes on around here during the school year so I mostly wrote about Dudley and Vernon and you. Here, look."

Petunia moved to sit on the bed next to Harry and opened the Diary to various pages showing him what she had written about him.

_January 7th  
__I was walking down the hall past Potter's bedroom and started thinking about him today. I will be so glad when that awful boy never has to return here anymore. Why we didn't just ignore that old man and send him to an orphanage I'll never know._

_January 12th  
__I was working in the garden this morning and discovered a broken plate hidden among the bushes. I just know it was that Potter brat. That boy is no good and I wish he was never born._

_January 22nd  
__It's Potter's fault, I know it. I don't know what he's done to make it take this long but I'm sure he used his unnaturalness to break the toilet. He has to tear up everything we own. Why can't he let us decent people live in peace? The ungrateful brat, and after all we've done for him._

The entries went on and on, each one confirming the others and Harry felt a weight settling in his heart as he read them. He had always known she didn't like him but for some reason hearing her talk about it and seeing it written in her hand made it so much worse.

Seeing him becoming more and more dejected she pulled the book away and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Harry I'm not trying to be mean to you by showing you this, there's a point I'm trying to get to."

Harry nodded still clearly upset and she continued.

"In February Marge broke her leg and needed some help around the house. Not having anything better to do I went to stay with her for about a month. Since I was in the habit and enjoying writing in my diary I took it with me. Here," she said showing him the book again after searching for the right page, "this is after I was there for a week."

Harry read the entries from a week after she had gone to Aunt Marge's and was surprised at what he read.

_February 11th  
__I found myself thinking about Harry earlier, I hope he's alright. I think he's had a rough couple of years at his school. He reminds me so much of James, except for his eyes which are most defiantly my sisters. I miss her._

_February 15th  
__I went shopping today and came across a shirt that I just had to buy. I think it will look very good on Harry and should match his eyes perfectly. I find myself worrying about him more and more, I hope he's ok._

_February 19th  
__Marge started in on Harry today and it made me so mad! I can't believe some of the things she said and won't repeat them here. When she started comparing him to my sister, and not in a good way, I had finally had enough and stormed off. The nerve of that woman!_

Harry looked at his Aunt with a mixture of surprise, shock and hope in his eyes as he finished reading the entries she had shown him. Before he could say anything Petunia flipped forward through the diary and showed him another entry.

"This is from a couple days after I returned here from Marge's."

_March 14th  
__I tripped walking past Potter's room this morning I just know it has something to do with his unnaturalness. Why he has to go and ruin our lives by staying here I don't know. I'll be forever grateful when he is gone from our lives for good._

"There's several more I won't bother to show you, I'm sure you get the idea. A couple weeks later I was reading back through everything I had written and noticed the abrupt change in my attitude concerning you. It didn't' take me long to realize that after I was away from here for about a week I didn't hate you anymore. Just to be sure I decided to spend another two weeks with Marge and after I was there about a week the hateful feelings disappeared again."

"Are you saying you don't really hate me? That you think something here is making you feel that way about me?" Harry asked hopefully.

Petunia nodded and held up her diary. "I know there's something wrong here, but I don't know what to do about it." Getting up from where she was sitting next to Harry Petunia walked to the door pausing as she left the room. "Right now I don't like you Harry." she said simply before closing the door behind her as she left the room. As Petunia walked towards her bedroom to put her diary away she felt a warm happy feeling in her chest. She hadn't failed to notice the smile Harry gave her at her parting words and it warmed her heart to think that after everything she'd done to him over the years he still believed and might even be willing to forgive her.

* * *

Sirius reappeared after Petunia left and took a seat in the desk chair across from Harry. 

"Did you get all that Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Yes, sounds like an artifact of some sort, though it could be a potion in the water or food or something but I doubt it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well your cousin doesn't seem to hate you anymore and if it was a potion being put in the food I would expect him to hate you too. Plus it would be a lot of work to have to keep dosing her I mean this has been going on since you were brought here right?"

Harry nodded. "Who did this and why?" Harry asked more to himself than anything. "Dumbledore, it has to have been Dumbledore there's no one else it could be. But why, what would he have to gain from my family hating me?"

Sirius sighed. "Well I would have to agree that Dumbledore is the only one who would have a reason to do something like this. So far everything he's done has shown that he has two basic motives concerning you, one to use you to hide his heir and two to keep you under his control. The first doesn't seem to apply so it has to be to keep you under his control. I'd say he wants you to see him as your savior when he takes you away from here each summer."

Harry grunted in frustration. How many more things like this has Dumbledore done to him over the years he wondered. Shaking himself from thoughts that weren't getting him anywhere he addressed Sirius. "So how do we find it and what do we do with it once we do?"

"It'll be easy to find if you can do magic all we need to do is cast a simple spell on you're eyes so that you can see magic. Then you just have to wander around the house until you find it. As far as what we do with it, well I don't know just yet. Once we find it we'll cast a few spells to identify what it is and go from their. It's a little like the curse breaking Bill Weasley does for Gringotts. I did some similar stuff with some of the junk at Grimmauld Place while I was stuck there so we shouldn't have much trouble if we can find it. But like I said we need a way to do some magic without getting you in trouble."

Harry let out a snort of indignation. "I don't think Fudge will be willing to give me an exemption any time soon."

Sirius chuckled. "There are a few ways around the underage law, the Ministry tracks underage magic in two different ways. There are charms on your wand to tell them when and where it gets used and what spell was done. Those are pretty easy to remove but you would need another wand to do it and you have to use magic. But even if we remove those they still monitor magic at your residence. If you lived with a wizarding family that wouldn't be a problem because they expect to see magic getting used at your home all the time but living here with muggles you'd get busted."

Harry nodded in understanding as he listened intently to Sirius every word.

"There are also ward's we could cast to prevent the Ministry from detecting any magic that took place here but we'd have to do the spells to create the ward which would get you caught, they've been illegal since the 1600's and I'd be surprised if Dumbledore's wards didn't notify him if they're modified. Come to think of it Dumbledore probably has his own wards to let him know if any magic is done here."

"The only other way I know is the Fidilius charm which would hide everything including magic but once again we'd have to perform the charm, Dumbledore would surely find out and I don't know how to cast it anyway."

"So it sounds like no matter what we do Dumbledore and probably the Ministry are going to find out and want to know what's going on." Harry said dejectedly.

Sirius listened to Harry and thought about what he said for several minutes all the while tapping a transparent finger on his chin. Finally he looked up at Harry and grinned. "So I think you're idea is the way to go."

"What?" Harry said wondering what the hell Sirius was talking about.

"Fudge." he replied simply.

Harry looked at his godfather like he was nuts. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sirius chuckled at the look on Harry's face. "Not at all, look it's no secret that Fudge doesn't particularly like you or Dumbledore he's been beat up politically to many times by the two of you. Now tell me, what do you think Fudge would be willing to do to encourage a split between you and the much vaunted Headmaster?"

A large grin appeared on Harry's face as he realized what Sirius had in mind. "I think he'd love to see a parting of ways between me and Dumbledore and I know something I can offer that I think he'd trade just about anything to get." Harry thought for several minutes loving the simplicity of it. "And if I have an exemption Dumbledore can't really say anything, can he?"

"Oh he can, and probably will but it won't do any good." said Sirius grinning like the Grim that chased the animagus cat up the Whomping Willow.

* * *

Cornelius Fudge Minister of Magic was sitting in his office thinking about the many important things he had to do when a snowy owl flew in through his window dropping a letter on his desk before landing on the back of an empty chair apparently waiting for a response. 

'I think that's Potter's owl.' he thought. Curious as to what the boy who had caused him so much trouble in the past was writing to him for he decided to put off his important business for a few minutes to read Harry's letter. A large smile appeared on his face as he did so.

_Dear Minister Fudge,_

_I am sure you are surprised to be receiving a letter from me and I am equally sure you will be happy with its contents._

_I have learned many things recently and all of these things have helped me come to the decision that it would be in my best interests to sever all ties with Albus Dumbledore. His decisions regarding me and my care have been shaky at best and downright perilous at worst continually placing not only myself but those around me at great risk._

_With that in mind I would like to ask a favor of you. I need an exemption from the underage magic restriction so that I may use magic during the summer holiday. It is my intention to attend a magic school outside of Britain at the start of the new term and I would like to practice over the summer to ensure my acceptance and placement. If you could see your way clear to granting me this request it would help ensure my ability to leave the country at the start of the new term and attend another institution for the remainder of my schooling._

_I would also appreciate it if you could keep the information in this letter between us. I have no doubts that should Headmaster Dumbledore find out about the reasons for the exemption he would do everything in his power to prevent my leaving. In fact I would expect him to question you directly about the exception once he hears of it, should you choose to extend your generosity to me that is._

_Thank you for your time Minister, I know you are a busy man._

_Sincerely,  
__Harry Potter_

Laughing out loud Cornelius pulled out his wand and pointed it at the letter he had just finished reading. "Incindio!" he said watching the letter disappear in a burst of flame.

After having his secretary provide him with the necessary forms he quickly filled out the paperwork. When he was finished he had his secretary deliver the forms to the proper offices while he penned a response to Harry. Once he had received the validated waiver and apparition license he placed them in an envelope with his note and gave it to Hedwig who quickly made her way out of the office.

"What a great day!" a smiling Cornelius said to his empty office.

* * *

Hedwig returned and after giving Harry his letter went to her cage for a drink of water and a nap. A smile lit up Harry's face as he opened the envelope and found the exemption and much to his surprise an apparition license inside along with a note. 

_Mr. Potter,_

_I was quite surprised to hear from you and not at all unhappy with what you had to say. I agree whole heartedly with your reasoning and proposed actions. Enclosed please find the approved waiver allowing you to use magic freely within the bounds of the law until you reach the age of majority at which time you will be able to use magic as a legal adult wizard. The paperwork has been filed with the appropriate offices and you are free to begin using magic immediately. The tracking and reporting charms can be removed from your wand by touching the waiver with its tip. Also enclosed please find an approved apparition license. I trust you will be able to find a suitable instructor. I wish you the very best at your new school._

_On a side note I understand your concerns and agree with your assessment. You have a major threat against you with the return of he-who-must-not-be-named and I am happy to be able to provide you with this waiver as a means of learning to defend yourself. That said, I have used the Incindio charm on your letter to great effect and would suggest as your first legal spell outside of Hogwarts you do the same to this one._

_Sincerely,  
__Cornelius Fudge  
__Minister of Magic_

While Sirius read Fudge's reply Harry drew his wand and touched its tip to the waiver. A bright glow enveloped the piece of parchment and Harry's wand for several seconds before fading. As soon as Sirius finished with Fudge's letter Harry pointed his wand at it saying "Incindio!" and watched the letter turn to ash which he then vanished.

"Well, should we start looking for the artifact?" Harry asked Sirius.

He was surprised to see his godfather shaking his head no. "Not yet, you should work on some spells from one of your school books, charms or something. I suspect someone from the order or Dumbledore will show up soon to see what you're doing using magic."

"Oh right." said Harry.

"By the way, do you're best to avoid making eye contact with whoever shows up especially if it's Dumbledore. We don't want anyone to go peeking into what we're doing. It might make it easier if you play the 'I'm upset because I just lost the worlds best and greatest ever godfather who was so incredibly handsome and wonderful…'"

A grinning Harry barely managed to cut him off before he got any more carried away. "Easy Snuffles, down boy." he said laughing at the fake hurt look he received in response.

Sirius disappeared and after digging out his charms book Harry began working through the fifth year material. It wasn't long before there was a soft pop and Harry looked up to see Albus Dumbledore standing in front of him.

"Hello Headmaster." Harry said sullenly looking down quickly and acting depressed. It was taking everything he had to not start cursing the man in front of him into oblivion.

"Hello Harry. I'm sorry to bother you so early in the holiday but I detected magic being performed on the premises and wanted to make sure you were alright. I expected to find an adult wizard here seeing as you are still underage. Why are you doing magic Harry?"

"Don't worry its ok." Harry said keeping his voice sounding as downtrodden as possible as he retrieved his new waiver from his desk and showed it to the Headmaster. "I asked the Minister for a waiver so I could learn to defend myself. I thought it would be a good idea with Voldemort running around trying to kill me."

"I see." Dumbledore said surprised that Cornelius would go along with this for Harry. He was sure that the Minister despised the boy. "What are you planning to study this summer?" he asked. There was nothing he could do about the waiver since it had already been approved but he could at least keep tabs on what Harry was learning.

"I'm not sure yet. I figured I'd start with everything through fifth year and if I still have time see about getting someone to take me to Diagon alley to get some more books." Harry kept looking down idly playing with the wand in his hands thoroughly working the depressed about his lost godfather angle and hoping Dumbledore would leave soon.

"That sounds like a good plan Harry. I'm not sure if you'll be safe going to Diagon Alley though, however I would be happy to send you some books when you're ready."

Seeing Harry nod he continued. "I'm glad to see you're dealing with your loss in a constructive manner. I know you feel the need to study but please do try and enjoy some of your summer."

"Thank you sir, I'll try." Harry said closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose while giving the Headmaster a weak smile.

A moment later Harry heard Dumbledore sigh. A soft pop later he was gone and Sirius reappeared. As soon as the old man left, Harry fell on to his bed shaking from a combination of nerves and rage.

"You handled that perfectly Harry." Sirius said.

"Thanks. I'm not sure how I kept myself from hexing him." Harry growled.

"I know Harry, it took everything I had not to appear and go off on the old codger." Sirius said in a tone eerily similar to the one Harry had used.

Harry chuckled at the thought of a ghost laying into the most powerful wizard alive.

"Don't worry about the Diagon Alley crap Dumbledore told you, I'll teach you some disguise charms and to apperate so that won't be a problem. I'm not about to let you be cooped up in here all summer, once we get a few things worked out you won't have much to worry about anymore."

Harry grinned, the happiness he was feeling shining from his emerald eyes.

* * *

Harry and Sirius decided to wait until the next day to search for the magical object they suspected was somewhere in the house. Petunia was still under the spell and hating all things Harry so they thought it would be best to wait until everyone was gone and perform the search in a Dursley free house. 

After breakfast Vernon left for work and Dudley went to meet his friends.

"Aunt Petunia." Harry said.

Petunia faced Harry with her dislike of the boy clearly showing. Harry was heartened to see she still wore the almost unidentifiable look he had noticed her with since Kings Cross which he now knew to be that of someone not happy with themselves for doing something they were unable to control. She didn't say anything, instead waiting impatiently for him to continue.

"That conversation we had the other day in my room, I think I know what to do about it but I have to use something you won't like so I was hoping you had some errands to run or something for a while this morning."

A brief look of hope flashed across her eyes before her mask of dislike reappeared. "As a matter of fact I do have some shopping I need to get done. I'll be back for lunch, do not destroy my house while I'm gone."

Harry grinned at his aunt before returning upstairs to wait for her to leave. A few minutes later he heard the front door open and close.

"Ok Kiddo," Sirius began, "have you ever seen a magical aura?"

"Yes, I've seen Dumbledore's when he's upset."

"Right, well all magical objects have them it's just that they're so faint you cant normally see them. The spell I'm going to teach you is only temporary but will enhance your eyesight so that you can. The incantation is 'magicus visus'. Concentrate on your eyes, having perfect eyesight and magical auras while moving the wand tip in a clock wise circle in front of your face. Oh, you should remove your glasses first."

Harry nodded and removed his glasses placing them carefully on the nightstand next to his bed. After concentrating for several minutes he moved the wand as he was instructed and repeated the incantation. A soft blue light enveloped his head for a second and vanished. A moment later everything came into focus and several items around the room began to glow softly in different colors. "Wow!" Harry said looking around the room.

"I know." Sirius replied grinning. "You only have about an hour though so we better get a move on. Search every room in the house, closets and all. If you find anything glowing we need to figure out what it is."

Harry began working his way through the house finally identifying two figurines in the living room that glowed red with a black tint.

"That's dark magic Harry." Sirius said knowingly. "I've seen that loads of times at Grimmauld."

After a quick wave of sadness at how low Dumbledore had stooped and a deep breath Harry asked what they needed to do. Sirius had him cast a series of spells finally arriving at an unbelievably simple solution. Pointing his wand at each statue in turn Harry said the spells, "Finite Incantatem! Finite Incantatem!"

As he watched the glow slowly faded away until the aura's completely disappeared from the statues.

"Clearly Dumbledore didn't expect you to figure this out or he would have protected them better." Sirius said almost laughing out loud.

Harry was also grinning ear to ear. "It sounds like it will take a week or so for the effects to wear off. Why do you think there were only two? I would guess one was for Aunt Petunia and the other for Uncle Vernon but what about Dudley?"

"Dumbledore probably put those here about the same time you moved in and Dudley was just a baby then so there was no need. If he was keeping an eye on you, which he surely was, he would have seen Dudley picking on you so there was really no need to add another."

After making another quick sweep of the house and the yard Harry returned to his room to wait for the spell to wear off hoping that in a week life at Privet Drive would be a lot better.

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** Hey all, you guys are completely awesome! I can't begin to thank you all enough for the great reviews I've received so far. You're incredible insights and suggestions have already helped me plug a couple small holes I had in this and upcoming chapters so thank you for helping make this a better fic! 

I was originally going to respond to each of you individually here but as I read the reviews I find that in doing so I would give away much of where I'm going with this and that would suck all the fun out of it. So instead I'll do my best to address what points I can without giving too much away.

This story will not be your typical head to head Harry vs. Dumbledore story; though that is a key element (you'll understand as the story progresses). Also, Dumbledore isn't exactly evil, he has done something evil but he's still definitely a light wizard though a bit of a villain in this story. Unfortunately his justifications are weak to everyone but him but you'll have to wait until about chapter 29 to see what they are (ha ha ha Dumble may not be evil but I am). The plot is pretty aggressive and difficult to work with and stay within the boundaries of cannon so I may stray a bit here and there but I'll do my best, I would expect Voldy and Bella to be a bit outside of their normal characters but I will provide what justifications I can. Skip, I think you're right I'm probably due to read the books again, it's been awhile. I removed three words from that line towards the end so it works now. Thanks, nice catch.

Pairings: Thanks ever so much for everyone's feedback to my question. When I asked the question I already had my picks narrowed to two and now know which way I'm going to go with it. But once again I'm evil and not going to tell you. Regardless of what pairings you like or don't like please don't stop reading because you 'think' the pairing's going in a direction you can't stand, it might not be going there, Harry is after all a hormone filled teenager. The pairing for this story is a minor part adding a bit of tension and angst and really only affects a small part of the end that I can't tell you about yet. Thanks again for your input.

To beta or not to beta, that is the question. Currently I don't use one, I don't doubt that it would improve my work but I think I've gotten better since my first stories and like being able to post when I want without having to wait on someone else. Robin DeWynter, thanks for the offer, I'm not sure what I want to do yet, I'll think about it.

As always please review. I read everything you write and your comments help make this a better story!


	3. Families and Trust

**Chapter 3 – Families and Trust**

The next week passed slowly for Harry. Every three days he was sure to send a quick message to the Order letting them know he was alright. He had been asked to do this at the train station when they had threatened the Dursley's and he was careful to do it so they wouldn't come poking around. He spent most of his time in his room practicing his magic and talking to Sirius who now stayed invisible almost all of the time. They were worried that Mad Eye Moody would see him and tell Dumbledore. The last thing they needed right now was for the old man to find out that Harry knew most everything he had been up too.

Harry found it interesting to watch his aunt and uncle during that week. For the first few days he didn't notice any discernable difference in their behavior but then he started to see some changes. It was little things at first small smiles and nods when he would put his plate in the sink or empty the trash bin or the thank you from his uncle when Harry passed him the jelly at breakfast.

Even though he was expecting these things it was still mind boggling and surprising when it actually happened. It seemed odd to Harry that a lifetime of hate could go away in only a week. That thought alone made him want to curse Dumbledore.

It was a week after Harry and Sirius had canceled the dark spells on the statues in the living room and Harry was in his room practicing magic when he looked up to find his Aunt Petunia watching him in awe. He immediately cursed himself for forgetting to close his door knowing that he was now going to be in a lot of trouble.

"I'm sorry Aunt Petunia." Lowering his wand he looked at the floor not wanting to meet his aunt's eyes. "I know I'm not supposed to be doing this in your house."

Instead of the scolding and punishment he was expecting after years of being conditioned to believe that his 'unnaturalness' was a bad thing and not to be tolerated Harry was surprised when she showed a real interest in what he was doing.

"Are you doing magic?" she asked

Shocked at her open acknowledgement of that part of his life, Harry was only able to nod.

Slowly entering the room Petunia turned Harry's desk chair around facing it towards the room and sat down.

"I thought you were too young to do magic out of school."

Finally finding his voice Harry responded. "The Minister of Magic gave me an exemption so I can practice over the summer legally."

Petunia smiled widely. "Can you show me some? I haven't seen much in the way of magic since Lily went into hiding with you and James."

"Umm, sure." Harry said. After thinking for a few minutes Harry waved his wand in an intricate pattern and muttered an incantation. On the floor in front of them appeared a crystal vase with two flower's in it, a Lily and a Petunia.

"Oh Harry they're beautiful!" she said as she picked up the vase.

Noticing he had forgotten the water he pointed his wand at the top of the vase and muttered a charm causing a stream of water to issue from its tip. As soon as the vase was full he ended the spell.

"You can keep it if you'd like. It's conjured so I'm not really sure how long it will last."

"Thank you, they're lovely." Petunia said softly. She sniffed the flowers deeply taking in their fragrant odor before staring at them for a long time seemingly lost in her memories. When she finally spoke she did not take her eyes from the flowers. "I'm sorry Harry. I've been awful to you since you came here and I regret every minute of it."

Harry was thrilled as he realized the dark spell's effects had finally passed. "It's ok, it wasn't your fault."

"No, it's not ok but I would like to try and start over if that's ok with you." she said finally looking at him.

"I'd like that Aunt Petunia." Harry said with an honest smile on his face.

Setting the flowers on the desk Petunia moved taking a seat on the bed next to Harry and pulled him into a hug which he gratefully returned. They held each other for a long time and Harry could hardly believe that he was receiving the first real show of affection he had ever received from his aunt. When they finally separated Petunia was wiping tears from her eyes.

"Are you ok Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked his voice filled with concern.

She smiled back at his thoughtfulness. "I'm fine Harry, just very happy. How did you ever turn out so good with the way we treated you growing up?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "You weren't that bad."

Petunia let out a small snort. "Oh yes we were. I take it you figured out what was wrong."

Harry nodded. "Yes, two of the statues in the living room were enchanted with dark magic. One made you hate me and everything to do with me and the other did the same to Uncle Vernon."

"Who would do such a thing and why?"

"I can't be a hundred percent sure but I'm almost positive it was the Headmaster of my school Albus Dumbledore."

Petunia's hatred seemed to resurface in an instant and Harry was glad to find out that it wasn't directed at him. "Albus Dumbledore why doesn't that surprise me, the meddling old fool. Do you have any idea why he did it?"

"I think it was so I'd be grateful to him for taking me away from here each year." Harry said sheepishly. "You know Dumbledore?"

"I know a lot more than you think Harry." his aunt said smiling. "Regardless of what you may have heard your mum and I were the best of friends. Oh sure I was a bit jealous of her abilities what non magical brother or sister wouldn't be but I always loved my sister. And your father was quite the character. It seemed like he was always either pranking or flirting." A slight blush crept up on her cheeks as she remembered him causing Harry to look at her in astonishment. "Oh don't worry Harry he just did it to tease me, that one only had eyes for your mum."

Harry grinned at the thought of his father before becoming serious again. "If you were so close to my mum how come she and dad wanted me to be with Sirius if anything happened to them instead of you?"

"I had a long talk with them about that and would have gladly taken you in but they decided you would be better off growing up in a wizarding home." She smiled fondly at the memory. "You should have seen Sirius when he found out he would be the one if anything happened, he was screaming and jumping around like a little girl he was so happy."

Harry laughed out loud as Sirius briefly appeared behind her looking like he was shocked she would say such a thing and trying to deny it but smiling all the while.

Harry and Petunia spent the rest of the morning and lunch talking and starting their relationship over. After lunch Petunia drove him to a department store and bought him all new clothes apologizing the whole time.

Upon returning home late that afternoon Harry carried the many bags they had acquired up to his room. When he entered the small living space he was surprised to find several owls with letters waiting for him. Setting the bags on his bed he sat at his desk taking a letter from the first owl.

_Harry,_

_How are you Harry? I hope you're doing well and that the Dursleys are treating you better than they have in the past. Please let me know if they're giving you any trouble. I know you well enough to know you probably wouldn't say anything to the Order even if they were giving you a hard time so I just want you to know that you can come to me. I'd truly love to help you in any way that I can if you need it._

_I pray you're dealing with Sirius loss ok Harry. I know you were blaming yourself during the last week of school and just wanted to tell you that it's not your fault. Please believe me when I say this, I know Sirius would tell you the same thing. There's nothing wrong with missing him, I miss him too. He was one of the few people that never looked down upon me because of what I am and I thought of him as a brother. Do your best to remember the good times you shared with him. If you'd like I would be more than happy to stop by to talk. I'm sure I could come up with some 'interesting' stories to tell you._

_Please take care of yourself Harry and write back to let me know how you're doing. If you need anything please let me know._

_Remus_

"Sirius." Harry said.

He felt a cold chill run up his spine sending shivers through his body. "Stop that!" Harry said. His only answer was a soft chuckling behind him.

"When you're done tormenting your godson do you think you could read this letter from Remus?"

"Alright, alright, keep your knickers on Kiddo." Sirius said still chuckling.

After giving Sirius a minute to read the letter Harry asked a question hoping he would hear the answer he wanted. "Can we trust him Sirius? I think it would do him a lot of good if he could talk to you. We could also use his help."

"Yes, we can trust him. I've followed him around Grimmauld a bit since I fell through the veil and became even more handsome than I already was" Harry rolled his eyes at Sirius, "and I have no doubt's about him, not that I did before. Why don't you write him back taking him up on his offer? Don't mention me though. I'm sure we can come up with a Marauder worthy way to announce my existence." Sirius grinned evilly as he began to envision the possibilities.

"Alright don't make it to bad though. All I need is for you to give him a heart attack and end up with two Marauder's ghosts following me around."

Sirius chuckled while Harry wrote a quick letter and sent it off with Remus owl. Turning to the other owls he found three more letters one each from Ron, Hermione and surprisingly the youngest and only female Weasley, Ginny.

_Harry,_

_Hey mate! Hope the muggles are treating you alright. Mums bugging Dumbledore about getting you out of there but it doesn't look to good right now. Hang in there though I know she won't give up until you're out of there. Guess what? The Cannons won their last game against the Harpies! Alright I'll admit the Harpies seeker hit her head on the way out of the lockers and was seeing double but still it's a Cannon Victory!_

_Ron_

_

* * *

Dear Harry, _

_How are you Harry? I hope the Dursley's are being nicer to you after what the Order said to them at the train station before you left._

_There's not much going on here. Since there's no homework because of the Owls I don't have much to do except read. I'm trying to get my parents to take me to Diagon Alley so I can buy next years books and get an early start, there's only two years until our Newts you know! How do you think you did on the Owls? I'm sure you did fine. I can't wait to find out how I did, it's driving me crazy!_

_I hope you're finding something to do and not dwelling on Sirius too much. We all miss him but I'm sure he wouldn't want you moping around blaming yourself for what happened all the time. It was not your fault Harry. You said you should always listen to me so listen to me now; it was not your fault. Please try to understand that, for me._

_Please take care of yourself and write back soon,_

_With Love,  
__Hermione_

_

* * *

Mr. Potter, _

_I'm sure Ron's letter was filled with worthless information and if Hermione has written it was probably about Owl scores with a load of touchy feely crap added in so I'll just say that if your blaming yourself for Sirius, get over it, it wasn't your fault. If your not, then good for you! Now that that's out of the way I'll get straight to the important things._

_I understand you have gone into business with my two identical older brothers (older in age, not in maturity). What's wrong with you Harry? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be? I really thought you were smarter than that but apparently I was wrong. Seeing as you were the one to fund their little operation I am holding you partially responsible for the current color of my hair, green! My hair is green Harry! Green! They say it's the color of your eyes in honor of their partner and co-conspirator and that it will last a week. Green! Stop laughing Harry it's not funny and you're just making me mad._

_Fine, if that's the way you're going to be then I'll just end this letter here._

_Please write back soon Harry,_

_Love,  
__Ginny_

Harry laughed until his sides hurt. He had never received a letter from Ginny before but he certainly enjoyed this one. He realized he'd been thinking of the youngest Weasley more and more often this summer and past year and resolved to write to her and hopefully get to know her better.

It was almost time for dinner so Harry quickly wrote reply's to the three letters and sent them off. It was more difficult than it should have been thanks to Sirius. He had read Ginny's letter and kept teasing Harry and making lewd comments and suggestions between bouts of laughter.

* * *

Harry entered the kitchen a few minutes late for dinner to find the Dursleys talking quietly while they waited for him to arrive. Dudley grinned at him and his Aunt Petunia seemed to be practically floating on air as she jumped up to fetch dinner when he entered the kitchen. As odd as their behavior was it was his Uncle Vernon that surprised him the most when he gave him a kind smile and treated him as if he was almost… human. 

"Hello Harry." he said.

"Hello Uncle Vernon, sorry I'm late I was finishing up some letters." Harry replied warily still not used to the 'new and improved' Dursleys.

"That's quite alright Harry. No harm done." Vernon said with his smile still in place. The smile fell away slightly as Vernon looked at the nephew he had been so horrible to for so long. "I'm sorry for the way we've treated you Harry."

"It's ok, it wasn't you're fault. All's forgotten." Harry gave Vernon a smile which was quickly returned as they reached an unspoken agreement that they didn't need to talk about it anymore.

Dinner was a happy affair. Petunia had made steak, baked potatoes and several kinds of salads for dinner and was in such a good mood she even let Dudley forgo his diet for once. Without the usual scowls and nasty comments directed towards Harry he was able to enjoy a family dinner with the Dursley's that reminded him much more of being at the Weasley's than his relatives.

Petunia was clearing off the table when there was a loud crash and she jumped back. Following the direction of her look Harry noticed she had dropped a large glass serving platter which had broken into a thousand pieces. Petunia glanced towards the table and as their eyes met a small grin appeared on her face.

"Harry?" she asked, "Would you mind?"

Surprised by her request Harry looked towards his Uncle Vernon to find a small amount of apprehension on his face though there also seemed to be something resembling anticipation.

"It's ok Harry." Petunia said seeing the questioning look on his face as he eyed Vernon.

Receiving a nod from his uncle he walked around the table and removed his wand from its holster within his sleeve. Pointing it towards the broken remains of the dish he said, "Reparo!"

The smashed pieces of the serving platter flew together and a moment later the dish sat on the floor whole once again. Looking back towards the table he could see that Vernon was impressed by this simple bit of magic and he would have sworn that he had heard his uncle mutter "Brilliant" before he turned around.

"Thank you Harry." Petunia said pleasantly as she returned to her task of cleaning up from the evening meal.

"Umm, yes, thank you Harry." Vernon added much to Harry's surprise.

"You're welcome, it was no trouble." Harry replied. Deciding to test the waters a little bit he continued. "I've asked a friend of mine to come over for a bit tomorrow if that's ok."

Vernon nodded. "That's fine Harry. Who is this friend if you don't mind my asking?"

"His names Remus Lupin, he was one of my parent's best friends."

"Oh Remus!" Petunia said turning from the sink to face Harry. "It will be good to see him now that those statue things have been taken care of."

"Speaking of the statues, I was thinking it might be a good idea if you still hated me around other magical people at least for awhile." Harry said carefully hoping they wouldn't be upset.

"Why's that Harry?" asked Vernon.

"Well, I think there's a lot more going on with Dumbledore than just the statues and I'm afraid if he find's out I got rid of them he'll just find another way to make you hate me." Harry looked down at the floor sad at the thought of loosing his family again when he had only just got them back. He was surprised when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to find it was his Uncle Vernon.

"It's ok Harry. If that's what you think is best then that's what we'll do. I don't particularly want to go back to that either." he said smiling.

"What about Remus?" Petunia asked. "Do we need to do that around him tomorrow?"

"No, I plan on telling Remus everything so he's ok." Harry said grinning. Tomorrow would most definitely be interesting he thought.

* * *

It was mid morning the next day when the doorbell rang. Figuring it was Remus Petunia gave Harry a quick smile and went to answer the door. 

"Yes." She ground out looking upset at his appearance on her doorstep as she did so.

"Um, hello Petunia, I'm here to see Harry."

Standing aside she let him in the door glaring at him the whole time. Closing the door behind him she turned around with a large smile on her face. "Remus! It's so good to really see you again!" she said happily giving the shocked werewolf a big hug.

"Petunia?" he started to question before he noticed Harry peeking through the kitchen door laughing his head off.

As they separated from the hug Remus noticed Petunia was also laughing heartily.

"Alright Harry, what's going on?" he said sternly directing his question to the kitchen door.

Harry appeared moments later his eyes sparkling with mirth. "Sorry Remus but the look on your face was priceless."

Remus didn't know what to think or do and just stood there looking completely lost and confused. Taking pity on her old friend Petunia grabbed both the boy's arms and pushed them towards the stairs. "Why don't the two of you go up to Harry's room and talk, he's got a lot to tell you Remus."

Remus just nodded still not knowing what to think. Following a still chuckling Harry they made their way up to his bedroom and closed the door behind them.

"Alright Harry, spill. What the heck was all that about?"

"Nothing much, that's just the tip of the iceberg Moony."

Remus looked at Harry examining the way he was acting. This was not the depressed and introverted boy he had been expecting to see today. Quite the opposite in fact and what the heck was up with Petunia? As his thoughts wandered trying to figure out what was going on he felt an ice cold shiver run up his spine. Looking around he couldn't find anything except Harry trying his best to keep from laughing hysterically.

As Harry faced Remus he noticed a shiver run through him right before he began searching the room for the cause. Harry was doing his best to keep from laughing when Moony turned to face him and he could tell from the look on his face that he knew something was going on. Harry's eyes opened wide with anticipation as he noticed the bucket of ice water he had conjured and set on top of his armoire for Sirius was floating towards Remus.

Remus was about to question Harry about what was going on when he saw his eyes go wide. Before he could react he felt the all too familiar feeling of being drenched with ice water and a bucket landed on his head.

"Harry!" he yelled at the laughing teen as he tried in vain to remove the bucket from his head.

"I'm sorry Remus." Harry replied through his gales of laughter as he drew his wand and vanished the bucket. He followed that up with a quick drying charm and Remus was back to normal if not just a little bit crankier.

Pulling his wand he pointed it at Harry who quickly held up his hands. "Hey, wait, it wasn't me!"

"Explain." he said simply.

Harry just pointed behind where Moony was standing. Turning around to see what Harry was pointing too his expression changed to pure shock for an instant before he passed out.

Harry and Sirius broke down laughing until tears were streaming down their cheeks. "Did you see the look on his face Harry?" laughed the ghost.

"That was wicked! I wish we'd had a camera. I thought he was going to hex me for that bucket of ice water."

"Well, we better wake him up and straighten him out." Sirius said finally getting himself under control.

Pointing his wand at Remus Harry said the spell to wake him up. "Ennervate!"

Remus slowly regained consciousness to find Harry standing over him. "Harry?"

"You ok Remus?" he asked.

"Yes, Sorry, I thought I saw Sirius for a second there." he said rubbing his eyes.

"You did Moony." Sirius said as he floated into view.

Moony instantly stiffened his eyes opening wide as he looked back and forth between Harry and the ghost of Sirius Black.

"Easy Moony, Harry told me I'm not allowed to give you a heart attack because he doesn't want two Marauders ghosts following him around. You wouldn't want to get me in to trouble now would you?" Sirius said to his friend with a grin.

As his brain began to process information again and he realized what was happening tears of happiness formed in Remus eyes. Harry helped him up from the floor and he turned to face his friend. "It's good to see you Padfoot, I missed you." he said sincerely as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Now, that's no way to greet your brother, give me a hug." Sirius said opening his arms widely.

"But you're a ghost." Remus replied as a matter of fact.

"Well it worked on Harry." Sirius pouted as he lowered his arms.

Remus laughed at the blush on Harry's cheeks. "Well at least I know why Harry's doing so well now. So not that it's not great to see you Padfoot but what the hell are you doing here? I would never in a million years have expected to see you become a ghost."

Sirius and Harry both sighed. "Have a seat Moony, it's a long story."

Between the two of them Harry and Sirius managed to relay the entire story of what was going on and what they were planning to do. By the time they reached the end Remus was visibly upset to the point where his eyes were starting to show signs of the wolf within that at the current moment was begging to be released.

"Harry," Remus said when they had finished telling him everything. "I will do whatever I can to help. I'm in."

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** Thanks so much for all the reviews! As usual you bring up some great points to keep me thinking and adjusting. 

Why didn't I tell the Ministry about the dark objects? Dumbledore still heads up the light side and Harry definitely doesn't want to take it over or nuke it so I don't see him nailing Dumbledore (yet). One thing I discovered while I was making the outline was that the story became very short if Dumbledore found out about Sirius or that Harry knows everything. Of course he will find out, it's just a matter of timing.

Harry is a powerful wizard, his parents were powerful therefore I would rate him on the high side of the power curve, but he's not in Dumbledore's league and therefore not in Voldy or Brian Goldman's league either. I also don't think Harry expressing his wanting to curse Dumbledore to Sirius is being cocky. He has a certain hatred of the man and while he may have felt that way he knows he wouldn't stand a chance against him. As far as Harry vs. Brian is concerned, you'll just have to wait and see. There will be interaction between the two… eventually…

Darak, does this mean you're a 'Shared Power' fan? Personally that's my favorite of all my fics. That one I will probably be writing on for a long time as the inspiration hits me, I won't concentrate on it and rush things just to push out an update, I really like the way it's coming out and don't want to ruin it. 'Hiding' and 'What Would You Do?' were both finished before I even posted them and I didn't want to make them longer just for the sake of making them longer. 'The Potion Masters Gift' I thought about making longer, had an idea of Draco finding out about and stealing the stone, but decided against it, I found I was having a hard time continuing that one as I didn't like it as much as 'Hiding' which it was a sequel too, basically I wanted it done. 'Transfer of Knowledge', I like the story and that's why I posted what I have, but I also felt it wasn't all that original and I don't really know where I'm going with it. I think I made it clear in the notes that it's suspended. I might go back and finish it eventually, but don't look for it any time soon. As far as 'Power the Dark Lord Knows Not' is concerned, well, umm, we won't talk about that here. Just kidding, personally, I like it. I still chuckle at the end and the entire author and disclaimer section was just for humor but it was most definitely a one shot, I think that would be a disappointing end to a long story.

I hope this kind of explains 'me'.

FRED, that is what the prophecy says but if you remember Sirius explanation in the first chapter Dumbledore made that prophecy up by modifying the real one to fit Harry, so really it doesn't mean anything.

padfootstwin2, I hope my email addressed your concerns.

Thank you all for reviewing and please keep them coming, if I haven't directly acknowledge you or your questions/comment it's probably because I don't want to give too much away. If you still want them addressed, please feel free to email me, my address is available on my author's page. Also when reviewing if you don't think I'll answer you're questions/comments in my notes, just ask for an email and I'll address them directly to you.

Once again, a big thanks to everyone for reviewing!


	4. Bellatrix

**Chapter 4 – Bellatrix**

Harry woke to the light of the morning sun shining though his bedroom window. He remained lying on his bed for a long time feeling more at peace with the world than he could ever remember. He had stayed up late talking and laughing with Remus and Sirius listening to the humorous banter between the two old friends as they told him stories of the infamous Marauders. As he swung his legs over the side of the bed to start getting ready for the day ahead he wore a smile on his face.

Sirius was nowhere to be found this morning. In between stories of pranks and Harry's parents the three had managed to discuss their plans for the summer and the following school year and Sirius was currently visiting his cousin.

After taking a quick shower Harry got dressed and headed down stairs to join his family for breakfast. My family, he thought as he walked towards the kitchen. It still seemed odd to him after all the years of, well it was in the past and he didn't particularly want to think about it anymore. Shaking the thoughts from his head he sat down at the table sharing morning greetings and a large breakfast with his relatives, no he thought, his family.

* * *

Sirius floated invisible near a small café a half dozen blocks from Grimmauld Place. He remembered coming here with Bellatrix when they were younger. The lady that had owned the place at the time had been a witch and the victim of many of Sirius and Bella's pranks. 

His first meeting with Bella after he became a ghost had been an encounter at Gringotts. The goblins tended to care very little for wizarding politics and Sirius solicitor, Garnod, had no moral problems with setting up a secret meeting between the ghost of an Azkaban escapee and a known Death Eater. Garnod had wanted to speak with him about his Will but Sirius had put it off in favor of more pressing matters. After a long conversation they had decided to meet here at one of their childhood haunts after Sirius had a chance to talk to Harry.

As he looked up the street he saw a figure approaching in a dark blue cloak. This was what he had been looking for and he immediately floated over to the individual he knew was his cousin and touched her left shoulder sending a shiver through her body. Recognizing the agreed upon sign Bella continued past the café walking several blocks down the street to an abandoned house. After sneaking inside and making sure there was no one else there Bella cast a complex series of privacy charms and Sirius appeared.

"Hello Bella." he said grinning.

Bellatrix gave him a sad smile. "Hi Sirius."

"Hey, I told you not to worry about it, it wasn't your fault remember."

She nodded sadly. "Sorry, it's just that I can remember doing it you know?"

"Well, like I said, I know it wasn't your fault and I don't blame you at all."

"I know." she replied still sounding sad but a bit more accepting. "So, did you get a chance to talk to Harry?"

"Yes, I told him everything I know. He took it about like I expected. I've found out a lot more since the last time we talked Bella, but I don't really think it's my right to tell you anything more than I already have."

Bellatrix took a deep breath before asking the question she'd been worrying about since the last time she saw Sirius. "Will he meet with me?"

"Yes."

With the simple answer she let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and smiled. It felt as if a heavy weight she had been carrying since Sirius death had been lifted from her shoulders. She knew meeting with him wasn't forgiveness but it was the first step.

"Can you get away tomorrow morning?" Sirius asked.

Still grinning Bella happily answered. "Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. Where do you want to meet?"

"Meet us at the Leaky Cauldron at 9:00 AM. We'll have a private room under the name Smith."

"Thanks Sirius." she said in a voice filled with excitement. She blushed brightly as she realized she felt and was acting like the girl she used to be before she fell into the dark magics.

Sirius chuckled at her causing her to blush even more. "It's good to see you back Trixi." he said using a name he used to tease her with when they were little. The use of her old nickname caused her to scowl at him but the twitching at the corners of her mouth gave her away and soon they were both laughing. Bella had to admit it felt good to really laugh again. It had been a long time.

* * *

The next morning Harry showered and dressed as usual and went downstairs to join his family for breakfast. They enjoyed a meal of omelets and sausages chatting happily. As they finished their food Vernon said his goodbyes and left for work. A few minutes later Remus arrived and was greeted by a glaring Petunia. It took all his years of control to keep from laughing at the sight. 

After closing the door her frown changed to a smile and she hugged Remus in greeting. "Good morning Remus. Have you had breakfast?"

"I have, thanks though."

Harry and Dudley entered the hallway from the kitchen a moment later. "Morning Moony." Harry said.

"Good morning Harry, Dudley, is everyone ready?"

Everyone was so they all went upstairs. Entering Harry's bedroom Remus removed four vials of a potion that had the consistency of sludge and placed them on the desk.

"I'll need a couple of hairs from each of you." he said to Petunia and Dudley.

They each quickly handed him two of their hairs and watched curiously as he place them in the potions. He then transfigured the clothes Harry was wearing to be much larger. Petunia was smaller than him so he didn't bother with his own. His transfiguration complete he handed one of the vials to Harry.

"Cheers!" he said with a combination of a smile and a grimace on his face as he thought about what he was going to drink.

Before they had too much time to think about it they downed the potions in one quick gulp. Petunia and Dudley watched in fascination and with a little bit of horror as Harry and Remus bodies began to bubble and shift, slowly changing shape until they were looking across the room at exact copies of themselves.

"Wow." said Dudley in almost a whisper.

"Amazing." Petunia added.

Remus once again pointed his wand at Harry and resized his clothes again to make them fit properly. He then turned his wand on himself and transfigured his into a dress identical to the one Petunia was wearing all the while doing his best to ignore the sniggering coming from Harry.

"Here" Remus said handing Harry one of the remaining vials, "put this in your pocket, it's for the trip back." He then turned to Petunia. "Thanks for helping us out with this remember to stay out of sight today we'll try to be back by dinner time."

"It's no trouble Remus, we're glad to help." she replied smiling.

"Can I get your car keys? We need to be going we only have an hour before this wears off."

Petunia nodded and they followed her into her bedroom where she removed them from her purse and handed them to Remus. As an after thought she also handed her purse to him.

"You need this to complete your ensemble." she said laughing as she did so which earned her a groan from Remus and more sniggers from the two Dudley's standing close by.

With the car keys in hand Remus and Harry left through the front door and climbed in Petunia's car. Moments later they were driving away from number four on their way to the Leaky Cauldron.

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks was board out of her mind. She was currently sitting under an invisibility cloak near some bushes in front of Number Four Privet Drive. It was times like this she wondered if she had chosen the right career. 

She watched lazily as Vernon once again left the house on his way to work. A few minutes later she was slightly surprised to see Remus arrive. I thought Dumbledore told him to keep his visits to a minimum she thought. Oh well, Harry needs someone to talk to after what happened. Maybe I didn't see him and won't mention it.

A little while later she watched as Petunia and Dudley left in the Dursley's other car. Tonks sighed internally it was going to be another long day of watching nothing.

* * *

Harry and Remus were nearing the Leaky Cauldron when the polyjuice potion wore off. After a few seconds of the disgusting feeling of having his body reform to its natural state Harry found himself sitting in oversized garments in the front seat of his uncle's car. 

Looking over at Remus Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Hey Moony, you look kind of cute in that dress."

Harry's laughter at the now scowling werewolf was joined by Sirius from the back seat.

"He's right Remy, hey, what are you doing later you sweet thing?" he teased.

Remus growled and pulled his wand quickly transfiguring his clothes back to normal and then pointing it at Harry.

"Hey, whoa there princess." Harry said still laughing and holding up his hands. A moment later a smile was back on Remus face and Sirius was laughing even harder as Harry found himself wearing a frilly pink party dress.

"Ok, it's not funny anymore." Harry said as he looked at himself in horror.

Remus didn't say a word as he pulled up to the curb not far from their destination and parked the car. Sirius continued to howl with laughter as Remus got out of the car and headed toward the wizarding pub.

"Hey!" yelled Harry not daring to step foot outside of the car. He thought briefly of trying to change his clothes back himself but discarded the idea quickly as he realized he didn't really have any idea how to do it, plus he wouldn't dare try while the clothes were still on his body.

"Remus!" he yelled again.

Remus slowly turned around and returned to stand next to Harry's side of the car. "Yes princess?" he asked look at Harry curiously with amusement shining in his eyes.

"Fix it." Harry ground out.

"Now is that any way to talk to someone whose help you need?"

Harry crossed his arms and glared at the marauder. Remus broke down laughing no longer able to contain it. "Ok, ok, keep your panties on sweetheart." Remus discreetly changed Harry's clothes back to their normal appearance and added a couple of glamour charms to hide his identity. Once he was satisfied that Harry would not be recognized they made their way to the Leaky Cauldron with an invisible Sirius floating silently behind.

Upon entering the pub they obtained a private dining room under the name Smith and set about making sure it was secure. After checking for every kind of eavesdropping and spying charm he could think of Remus added several wards of his own. They did not want to be caught meeting with a known Death Eater.

Finishing his work he removed the glamour charms from Harry and was chatting with him when Sirius appeared in front of them. "She's here."

Nodding in understanding Remus drew his wand and moved towards the door. He knew Sirius trusted her enough to setup this meeting with Harry but he wasn't about to let his guard down until he knew for sure. Opening the door he kept his wand trained on the figure wearing the blue cloak as he let her into the room.

Bellatrix was extremely nervous as she entered the room. The first person she noticed was Remus who was standing next to the door with his wand pointing at her heart. "Hello Remus."

"Bella." he replied simply.

There was not an ounce of humor in his voice and she knew right away she would have to earn his trust and that he would protect Harry with his very life. Continuing around the room she saw the smiling ghost of her cousin floating next to the young man she knew to be Harry Potter. Bella was surprised as she looked at him everything had happened so fast that night at the ministry that she hadn't really had a chance. She found him to be exceedingly handsome with the most gorgeous green eyes and for some reason she couldn't explain she had an urge to run her hands through the unruly mop of hair on top of his head. Shaking herself from her thoughts she lowered the hood of her cloak and removed it tossing it on to an empty chair by the door before moving to stand in front of him.

Harry stood as Bellatrix Lestrange entered the small dining room and smiled internally as he noticed Remus protecting him from her. He watched them exchange a quick greeting before her eyes scanned the room finally landing on him. She seemed to stare at him for several long seconds before shaking her head and removing her traveling cloak. After throwing it on a chair next to the door she walked towards him. To say he was shocked at her appearance would be an understatement. Taking a good look as she crossed the room he found her to be quite beautiful. She had long blond hair, blue eyes and perfect skin with curves that most any witch would kill for. It was almost unbelievable to think that she had spent so many years in Azkaban Prison. There was no outward appearance of the torture she had lived through except in her eyes which while hauntingly beautiful revealed a depth of pain he had only seen in his godfathers.

Feeling an ice cold hand on his shoulder he was finally able to shake off the spell he had found himself under and looked up to see Sirius looking back. "Harry, allow me to introduce my cousin, Bellatrix." He then turned to his cousin, "Bellatrix, Harry."

Harry extended his hand and watched as Bellatrix hesitantly returned his grasp. "It's nice to finally meet you Bellatrix." Harry said. He was amazed at how much he liked the feeling of holding her soft hand in his own and felt it ended far too soon as he released her.

Bella couldn't believe he was being so nice. She had expected him to take out his anger over Sirius death on her and was prepared to let him do so. As their hands touched she felt a warm feeling flow through her and was disappointed when it ended. Nock it off Bella she thought to herself once again doing her best to shake off the odd feeling. "Please, just Bella and it's nice to meet you too Harry." she said before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I'm sorry." she then said softly.

"It wasn't your fau…" Harry was stopped by Bella vigorously shaking her head.

"Wait, please, there's something I need to do first." she said.

Harry looked from her to Sirius and noticed a knowing smile on his face as if he expected something like this to happen. Receiving a nod from his godfather he returned his gaze to Bella.

"Ok."

Remus tensed holding his wand tighter but took no action as Bella removed a small knife from within her pocket. After opening the blade she ran it across her palm and blood immediately started flowing from the self inflicted wound. Setting the knife on the table she balled her cut hand into a fist and squeezed. Little drops of blood dripped from her fist to the floor as she spoke her promise.

"I Bellatrix Black do hereby swear a witch's blood oath to Harry Potter. I swear by my magic to always tell him the truth. I swear by my life to never cause him any harm or to allow any harm to come to him through my inaction. I so swear." Finishing her oath Bella stood still looking to Harry for a response.

Harry stood still, stunned at what she had done and not knowing what to do. Several quiet moments went by before Sirius leaned in to Harry and whispered in his ear. "You need to accept or decline her oath. Just say your name and that you accept or decline her oath and her name. You should know that if you decline she will pay the penalties she has offered which in this case would mean she looses her magic and life."

Harry nodded still not believing this was happening. "I Harry Potter accept the witch's blood oath of Bellatrix Black."

A subtle shift to the magic within the room could be felt as the oath was consummated and Bella's wound healed instantly leaving a small scar behind as a reminder. Remus seemed to deflate and smile as he put away his wand no longer having to worry about Harry's safety in her presence the binding magic between them would take care of that now.

The four took seats each sipping on a butter beer that Remus had ordered on there way in as the conversation began.

"You didn't need to do that." Harry said to Bella.

She smiled kindly at his consideration. "Yes I did, if not for you then for me. I'm really sorry about what happened to Sirius Harry."

"I know what happened, it wasn't your fault and you don't need to say anything else about it."

"I know you have, but please let me tell you, I do need to say it." Seeing the understanding and accepting look in his eyes Bella took a deep breath and continued. "I was surprised when Sirius showed up in the Death Chamber to save you, surprised and happy at the same time. I made my way over to him as quickly as possible and we started dueling." A smile appeared on her face as she remembered the duel fondly. "It was fun Harry, the only fun I can remember having had in a long time. Sirius and I were best friends when we were little. We used to torment Narcissa until she'd run away crying to mother. Anyway, we were only using harmless hexes and jinxes on each other when I felt a spell hit me in the back. I felt that feeling of bliss wash over me and suddenly felt the urge to kill Sirius. The voice in my head kept telling me to use the killing curse. It kept saying he was going to kill me and that the Dark Lord commanded that I kill him. I tried my best to fight the curse but couldn't completely throw its effects off. I really tried."

Tears were flowing down her face now as she relived that day. Harry tried to stop her but she shook her head no again. Wiping her eyes she continued. "My spells started getting stronger and darker I knew I had to get him away from me before I lost the fight with the voice but before I could do anything one of my curses hit him across his chest and forced him backwards through the veil. As soon as he was gone the imperious curse fell away and Dumbledore showed up. I was upset and ran from the room. Of course you know what happened after that. I'm so sorry Harry. I was dying inside while we were fighting in the Atrium. I'm sorry for what I said up there too, I wanted so badly to tell you what happened and to tell you I was sorry but I knew the Dark Lord was there so I didn't dare. Harry, the voice I heard, the voice that was telling me what to do in the Death Chamber, it was Dumbledore's voice."

Harry could see the pain clearly written on Bella's face. "It's ok, it wasn't your fault."

Bella looked up with hope in her eyes. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive but if it helps then yes, I forgive you."

Happiness welled up within Bella and she jumped up from her chair and gave Harry a big hug. As he returned the embrace they both thought it felt really good to hold each other and pulled away awkwardly at the thought. As the hug ended Bella returned to her seat.

"Thanks Harry that means a lot to Me." she said wiping the tears from her eyes and still embarrassed about the thoughts she kept having.

"I thought your last name was Lestrange?" Harry finally asked to break the awkward silence that had descended on the room.

A frown appeared on Bella's face. "I went to the goblins and got a divorce from Rodolphus a week ago. I never really liked him anyway, the marriage was arranged and he's the reason I ended up where I am now."

Harry nodded in understanding. "I hate to bring it up, but there is something I've been wondering about ever since Sirius told me what happened at the Ministry and I agreed to meet you."

"You can ask me anything Harry." she replied nervously worried about what he might ask.

"What happened with the Longbottoms?"

Bella became downcast at the memory. "I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do. By the time I arrived they were already insane. I managed to save the boy from being tortured but in doing so it gave the Aurors time to get the drop on us. I tried to explain but no one would listen to the evil Death Eater who had obviously tortured the married Aurors. They didn't even let me talk at the trial."

"What?" said Harry. "I saw a pensive memory of the trial and you raved on and on about the Dark Lord and everything."

Sirius jumped into the conversation at this point. "Whose memory was it that you saw Harry?"

"It was Dumbledore's…" he said realizing what must have happened. "He did it again, didn't he?"

Sirius smiled back sadly nodding his head.

"He modified his memory of the trial just like he did the prophecy and left the cabinet unlocked on purpose and left me alone in his office knowing I would be curious and look. It was just one more thing to get more control over me. Make me hate the Death Eaters even more for what they did to my friend's family so that I would follow him."

Harry thought about it for several more minutes. "But why modify it? It would have worked anyway, why add Bella ranting about the Dark Lord?"

"We may never know for sure Harry," Sirius began, "but if he wanted to spice up the memory for you, turning the one calm and sympathetic Death Eater into a raving psycho would be a good way to go."

Harry had had enough and was extremely angry as he turned to Bella. "I need a favor." he said.

"Anything." she replied happy to be able to help him.

It was with steel and determination in his eyes and his voice that he made his request. "I need you to setup a meeting between me and Voldemort."

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** As always thanks for all of your great reviews! You do a great job keeping me motivated! 

I have taken a couple of precautions to allow for the Order watching Harry including Moody as you probably now know. I love a good Harry vs. Dumbledore fic but when I really think about it I don't see Harry being able to outsmart/think Dumbledore so I'm going with a slightly different tack here, don't worry though, what goes around comes around.

No, I do not have this story written already though I do have a very good outline written that I'm working from so that helps a lot. Sometimes everything just seems to flow and I can crank out a good chapter in a few hours, other times it's like pulling teeth to get things the way I need/want them to be or I just can't get in the mood and walk away. The muse did hit and I have rough drafts of the next two though, so they shouldn't be too long.

Hpfan20, Sorry, Blaise isn't in this fic and I've already set the pairing.

Xyvortex, pretty much, though not unnecessarily so and definitely not to the extent I'm playing him up to be in this fic.

Thank you all very much for all of your comments and input. As usual you'll notice I haven't answered everyone's questions or addressed all of the comments. Once again this is because I don't want to answer them, some are right, some are wrong but mostly the answersgive away too much. So, if I've left you and you still want answers just email me. Thanks and keep em coming!


	5. Gringotts

**Chapter 5 – Gringotts**

Bella was completely shocked by Harry's request. "You want me to do what?" she said not daring to believe she had heard him correctly.

"I need to meet with Voldemort. Tell him I would like to meet with him to talk. The terms of the meeting should be that he and I meet alone, though you'll need to take me to the meeting so you may attend. Regardless of what happens or is talked about at the end of the meeting we will both walk away unharmed. If he would like it in a magical contract that's fine but he's never lied to me so as a show of good faith I will take him at his word if he's willing to accept."

The witch nodded in disbelief. "Ok Harry, I'll pass on your request. Are you sure about this?"

Harry nodded. "Positive. Tell him that I have never lied to him either and that I promise it will be worth his while to meet with me."

"Ok." Bella said getting up from her seat and putting on her cloak. "When do you want to meet him?"

"The sooner the better, today if possible. I'll be at Gringotts for awhile then doing some shopping around Diagon alley this afternoon just so you know where to find me if he's willing."

Bella nodded and with a swish of her cloak disappeared through the door.

Remus approached Harry placing a hand on his shoulder as she left. "Are you sure about this Harry? It's not too late to change your mind."

"I'm positive. Every time I turn around I find something else that old bastard has done to manipulate me. I'm sick of it. I want out and if this is the only way to get that then so be it."

Remus smiled proudly at Harry giving him a pat on the shoulder before lowering his hand. Sirius was grinning widely. "Alright then, let's head over to Gringotts and deal another blow to that 'old bastard' as Harry so aptly put it."

The three shared a quick laugh before Harry's stomach growled letting everyone know it was lunch time, starting another round of laughter and jokes at Harry's expense. After a large meal of beef stew and bread Sirius became invisible again while Remus removed his wards from the room and replaced the glamour charms on Harry. As soon as he was done they left for Diagon Alley and Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

* * *

Harry and Remus passed through the doors of the wizarding bank and walked up to the first available goblin with an invisible Sirius floating silently behind. 

"What my I do for you today?" the goblin behind the counter asked with a toothy grin.

"We need to speak with a solicitor concerning the last will and testament of Mr. Sirius Black." Remus replied getting the goblins full attention.

"Of course sirs your arrival has been expected, right this way." he said leading them down a hallway to a series of offices. He finally stopped in front of a large set of double doors which led to a conference room. "Please take a seat I will inform Solicitor Garnod you are here."

They barely had a chance to sit down when an old goblin entered the room and took a seat opposite them. Extending his hand he greeted the pair. "I am Solicitor Garnod."

"Remus Lupin."

"Harry Potter."

The old goblin looked at Harry for a long moment before waving his hand causing the glamour charms to disappear. "Ahh, that's better." He then looked to the empty chair on Harry's right. "Mr. Black, please reveal yourself." he said.

Sirius faded into view with a large grin on his face. "Can't fool you Garnod."

"Mr. Black it's good to see you again. I've been wondering when you would return to address the state of your Will."

Sirius looked back at him curiously. "What exactly do you mean by 'the state of my Will'?"

Garnod gestured to a roll of parchment with a large red seal lying on the table in front of him, "It became active recently but the seal has remained intact and therefore we have been unable to execute it."

"So what do we need to do about that? In fact I would like to make some changes, is that possible?" Sirius asked the goblin.

"Of course Mr. Black, the Will became active because of your death but we have not been able to execute it because your will that is to say your desire lives on in the form of your spirit therefore you are required to break the seal and execute the will as you see fit."

Sirius nodded ecstatic with the turn of events. "Excellent, what do I need to do?"

"Simply touch the seal to break it and then we can execute it making whatever changes you wish."

Floating through the table Sirius reached out and placed a transparent finger on the large red seal. With a flash of red and a loud crack the seal was broken.

"Let me begin by outlining how things stand right now." Garnod said as he unrolled and quickly scanned the document. "Let's see… Ahh, an organization called the Order of the Phoenix receives one third of the cash assets and the ancestral Black home Grimmauld Place both to be given into trust to Albus Dumbledore to use in the fight against the Dark Lord Voldemort as he sees fit. If any of these assets remain after the Dark Lords defeat they are to be divided equally between Remus Lupin and Harry Potter. Remus Lupin receives one third of the cash assets and half of the items in the Black Family Vault and Grimmauld Place. Harry Potter receives one third of the cash assets and the other half of the items in the Black Family Vault and Grimmauld Place."

Sirius was tapping a ghostly finger against his chin. "What happens to my guardianship of Harry?"

Garnod seemed to be deep in thought for several minutes. "Actually I don't believe you have ever had guardianship of Mr. Potter."

"What?" Sirius said, "His parents James and Lily Potter specified in their Will that his guardianship was to fall to me upon their deaths. What happened?"

"One moment." Garnod said. With a snap of his fingers the goblin who had led them to the office rushed in.

"Yes sir?"

"I require the Last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter as well as all documentation relating to said Will and the guardianship of Harry Potter."

After making a deep bow the goblin scurried from the room. A few minutes later he returned with a small stack of parchments. Garnod immediately began sorting through the pile.

"Mr. Potter's magical guardian is currently one Albus Dumbledore." Looking up from the papers Garnod found himself facing three very angry wizards.

Sirius growled in frustration. "What can we do about that?"

An evil grin appeared on Garnod's face as he answered Sirius question. "Much of the documentation was never signed indicating the Potter's will was never fully executed. It would be a simple matter to execute their Will now. As a spirit you would not be able to hold guardianship over Mr. Potter but as the guardian named in the Potter's Will you would be able to name an alternate guardian."

A large smile appeared on Sirius face as he turned to face Harry. "Who would you like Harry?"

Grinning back Harry turned to his other side. "Remus, would you be my guardian?" he asked in a voice filled with hope.

Remus pulled Harry in for a large hug. "I'd be honored Harry. You have no idea how happy you've just made me."

Sirius smiled at the pair wishing not for the first time he could join in the hug. Turning his attention back to Solicitor Garnod he gave him his decision. "I would like Remus Lupin to take the position of guardian for Harry Potter."

"Excellent." Garnod said as he began to fill in several forms. With another snap of his fingers the other goblin appeared again.

"Sir."

"I require a ghost quill."

Giving another bow the goblin left returning a minute later with a small wooden box which he placed on the table in front of Sirius before opening it and leaving the room. Inside was what looked like a standard quill except that only the bottom half inch of the feather was solid, the rest was semi transparent just like a ghost.

"This will allow you to sign the necessary documents Mr. Black. Normally we would require a form of identification to transfer guardianship rights in the form of blood. As a ghost that is of course not an option. This quill takes the place of that test while legally meeting its requirements. When used by a spirit it will only allow them to sign their own legal name thus preventing a spirit from taking another's form and forging their name to legal documents.

Sirius nodded picking up the quill. Normally moving objects was difficult and awkward at best but the ghost quill felt natural in his hand feeling as if he was holding a regular quill.

Pushing several forms across the desk Garnod continued. "These are the forms required to execute the Potter's Will. These two transfer custody of Mr. Potter to Mr. Black and will need to be signed by both of you."

Harry and Sirius scribbled their names on the offered forms.

"These transfer all of the Potter assets to Mr. Potter and assign his guardian in this case Mr. Black as trustee and will need to be signed by Mr. Potter and Mr. Black." A fairly large number of forms were pushed across the table towards Harry and Sirius.

Once again they signed all of the offered forms.

"These four transfer the guardianship of Mr. Potter and the associated trusteeship to Remus Lupin and will need to be signed by all of you."

"That takes care of the disposition of the Potter Estate and the guardianship of Mr. Potter." Garnod said as he received the final form back. "Now, how would you like to distribute the Black Estate Mr. Black?"

"I would like the money split equally between Harry and Remus as well as the objects in the Black Family Vault and Grimmauld Place. I would like them to both be listed as co-owners of Grimmauld Place."

The old goblin nodded expecting as much and started filling out the required forms. As he finished each one he passed them across the table to be signed by Sirius, Harry and Remus. When the pile was several inches tall the goblin finally indicated they were done.

"The monetary assets are being divided as we speak and will be transferred to each of your vaults shortly. If I might offer you a suggestion," he said placing two plastic cards on the table one each in front of Harry and Remus, "these are wizarding debit cards. Simply place your key on the card and it will be ready for your use. You may use these at any wizarding store with an account at our bank which is all of them and the necessary funds will be transferred to the stores account. They are also good in muggle stores. They may only be used by those legally allowed to access your vault and you will never be asked for identification when using it, even in muggle stores. Should you loose it, it will return to Gringotts and may be picked up by you or in your case Mr. Potter your guardian."

"Excellent, how much are they?" Harry asked.

"Normally they sell for fifty galleons each but for holders of accounts your size there is no charge."

"Thank you." Harry said. Fishing his key out of his pocket Harry laid it on the card and watched in fascination as it sank into the plastic disappearing in moments.

"Is there anything else I can assist you with today?" Garnod asked.

Harry spoke up at the offer. "I wouldn't mind seeing the Black Family Vault if that's ok."

"Of course Mr. Potter I'll arrange an escort for you, will there be anything else?"

"No thank you, I believe you've exceeded our expectations already." Sirius replied.

Solicitor Garnod bowed slightly and with a snap of his fingers a goblin appeared to lead them to the carts. Climbing aboard Harry and Remus enjoyed a wild roller coaster ride finally stopping in front of a large black vault door.

Stepping up to the door the goblin with them ran a long bony finger down the center before stepping back. A loud groan and several clicks were heard before the door swung open. Entering the vault Harry and Remus discovered a large empty section that according to Sirius used to contain millions of galleons, sickles and knuts. Apparently the goblins had already finished the transfer.

The rest of the vault was filled with all manner of odd items, weapons, books and jewelry. Sirius pointed out several items some with uses that bordered on terrifying. In the end Harry and Remus decided they had no need to split up the contents of the vault and left it all there so that either of them could look through or use any of the items in the vault.

After looking around the vault for a half hour or so they returned to the cart and were taken back up to the cart room just off the banks lobby. Remus reapplied the glamour charms to Harry and they climbed out of the cart and left the bank.

* * *

Bella walked through the Leaking Cauldron after her meeting with Harry feeling as if a giant burden had been removed from her soul. As she made her way to the back alley her thoughts remained on the young man she had just met. She kept kicking herself for the way she felt around him wondering what it was about Harry that she was attracted too. It amazed her that he wanted to meet with the Dark Lord. She had to admit he definitely had guts. 

Arriving in the alley she drew her wand and apperated to a small cemetery just outside of Little Hangleton and began the short walk to Riddle Manor. Entering the manor house she passed several Death Eaters milling about. She swiftly made her way through the halls and up the stairs where she found Voldemort sitting in a high backed leather chair in the study.

"My Lord." Bella said as she approached Voldemort.

"Bella, what news do you bring me."

Bellatrix looked warily at the pair of Death Eaters by the door before returning her attention to the Dark Lord. "Master I bring a message that is not for others ears."

Voldemort sat back in his chair looking thoughtfully at his servant for a full minute before responding. "Leave us." he said directing his order to the other Death Eaters in the room.

The pair by the door made a hasty exit and Voldemort closed the door with a wave of his hand. A moment later he had warded the room and was looking at Bella expectantly.

"Harry Potter wishes to meet with you." she said. For an instant she thought his eyes registered surprise but it passed so fast she couldn't be sure that she hadn't imagined it.

"Interesting, tell me more." he hissed.

Bella gave a short bow of her head and continued. "He wishes to meet with you to talk as soon as possible. He wants to meet you alone though he said I could attend as I will be needed to bring him to you and that at the end of the meeting you would both leave unharmed. He said that he would gladly enter into a magical contract binding you both to these terms but he also said that you have never lied to him and if you agree he will take you at your word. Finally he mentioned that he has never lied to you either and he promised it would be worth your while to speak with him."

Voldemort laced his fingers together as he sat thinking about the offer. He couldn't believe Potter would want to meet him even under these terms not to mention be the one to initiate the meeting. He had to admit to himself he was intrigued by the request and curious what the boy wanted to speak with him about. As he continued it occurred to him that Bella had to have had a conversation with Harry.

"How did you come about this message Bella?"

She had been afraid he would ask that and was scared of what he might do if he didn't like the answer. "I met with him in the Leaky Cauldron a little while ago. I spoke with him about Sirius Black. It was at the end of the conversation that he asked me to bring his request to you."

He knew about Sirius Black and what had occurred in the Death Chamber at the Ministry of Magic. He had been extremely surprised to find out that Dumbledore had been the one responsible.

"Show me your palms." he ordered.

Bella swallowed nervously as she extended her arms and held her hands palms up for his inspection. She was surprised when he nodded as if expecting the scar on her palm.

"Very well, tell Mr. Potter I agree to his terms and will meet with him."

Voldemort and Bella spent several long minutes discussing the details of the meeting. Once everything had been worked out Bella gave a quick bow to her master and left the Manor.

* * *

The sun was shining brightly as Harry made his way down the steps in front of Gringotts with his newly appointed guardian walking along beside him and his godfather floating invisible behind. He couldn't believe how much his luck had changed over the last week and thanked the gods he had Sirius and Remus in his life. 

As they walked down the cobblestone street Harry and Remus heard Sirius whispering to them, "Hey, go in to Flourish and Blotts, we need to pick up a book for Harry."

Not having any set plans they wandered over to the book store. Sirius guided them to the transfiguration section where he made a book fall off the shelf. Remus picked it up and a large grin appeared on his face as he handed it to Harry.

"Mr. Moony would like to tell Mr. Padfoot that he has come up with an inspired idea."

"Mr. Padfoot would like to respond to Mr. Moony by saying 'Of course, I thought of it'."

Harry shook his head grinning as the two went on with their marauder style conversation finally reading the title of the book he now held.

_The Animagus Transformation  
__Everything You Ever Wanted to Know and a Lot of Stuff You Didn't  
__by Freidya Naiminal_

Looking back towards Sirius and Remus who were now smiling at the look on Harry's face he was practically bouncing with excitement. "Really!"

"Of course, how are we supposed to give you a name if we don't know what your form is?" Moony said. "Why don't you go pay for this, I'm gonna run a quick errand and I'll meet you and Padfoot at Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor for a snack in a little bit."

Before Harry had a chance to ask him where he was going Remus had disappeared. Shrugging his shoulders Harry went to pay for the book. Even thought Harry was in disguise the credit card worked just as the goblin had described and he was not asked for identification. After shrinking and pocketing the book Harry made his way down the alley with Sirius in tow.

He was sitting at a table eating a new product when he saw Remus appear from the direction of the book store and walk into the ice cream parlor giving him a wink as he passed by. A minute later he returned with a chocolate ice cream cone and sat down next to Harry.

"What the heck are you eating Harry?" Remus asked looking at the bowl of multi colored ice cream Harry was munching on.

Harry grinned. "It's a new flavor, or flavors I should say. It's Bertie Botts Every Flavor Ice Cream, a different flavor with every bite." Harry took another bite and a grimace appeared on his face, "Uhgg, beets."

Remus started laughing at him. "You're braver than I am Harry."

"Where did you go?" he asked recovering from the disgusting bite.

Reaching in his robes Remus pulled out a pale blue potion showing it to Harry quickly before returning it to his pocket. "Knockturn Alley. You'll need this to unlock your animal to start your animagus training. One of the ingredients is a Ministry controlled substance so we couldn't buy it through normal channels."

"Thanks Remus, for everything." Harry said smiling at his new guardian.

"You're welcome Harry. And thank you, you'll never know how much what you've done means to me."

The pair smiled at each other enjoying the new feeling of family when the moment was broken up by a ghost making a raspberry between them. "Break it up you two, you're not wearing the dresses any more." he said before bursting into laughter.

"Remus, we need to find a book on spells that work on ghosts." Harry said.

"That we do Harry." Remus smiled back.

"That's not funny guys." pouted Sirius causing another round of laughter.

After finishing their ice cream the three wandered around Diagon Alley. They didn't really have anything they needed to buy they were just enjoying the day. It was mid afternoon when a familiar figure wearing a blue cloak with the hood raised approached them.

"Hello Bella." Sirius said while Remus and Harry smiled at her appearance.

"Hi." she said returning the smiles. "He agreed to your terms and will meet with you now if still want to go."

"Yes, I still do." Harry replied sounding more sure of himself than he really was.

"Alright, come on."

Bella led the group to a small alley between two shops where they would be out of sight and removed a quill from within her robes. "This is a portkey that will take us to the entrance hall in his manor. As soon as you touch it we'll be off."

Remus removed the glamour charms from Harry and gave him a quick hug. "Be safe Harry, and hurry back. I'll be waiting in the Leaky Cauldron for you."

"Take care of him Bella." Sirius said to his cousin.

Harry and Bella nodded and Harry reached out taking hold of the feather Bella was holding. He felt the familiar tug of a portkey behind his navel and they disappeared.

"I hope this isn't a mistake Sirius." Remus said quietly as he stared at the spot Harry had just disappeared from.

"Me too Remus, me too."

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** Thanks for continuing to review; I love all the responses I'm getting and there fun to read! 

Pairing: Hmmm, hard to say at this point isn't it! Ha, ha, ha… Besides, you haven't even met Kaela Moore yet, ha, ha, ha… (sorry SeleneA, but this is too much fun, Ha!)

Harry will not be going to Hogwarts…oops, did I type that, oh well. Grimmauld Place?...Hmmm… Don't worry, Harry won't become dark, his plans will become much clearer in the next few chapters and later on he will be forced into certain actions. I know I don't have to stick to canon but I like working from that base and with a story like this it's fun to try to manipulate the events of the first five books without having to change them. That said there are a couple small deviations but oh well. As far as meeting Voldy face to face I don't really see him wanting to do that within canon, but it works with this plot and is very important for what lies ahead…

Shadowed Rains, What state do you live in? I ask because I want to avoid it. Grins.

Lmill123, I like it, good ideas. For the most part not the direction I'm going but great ideas none the less!

Thanks again for all your incredible reviews, keep em coming!


	6. Tom Riddle

**Chapter 6 – Tom Riddle**

Harry and Bella appeared in the entrance hall of Riddle Manor. As he looked around Harry was not surprised to find that it reminded him a lot of Grimmauld Place. The carpets were old and worn the paint peeling and gas lanterns hung on the walls providing a dingy sort of light that had no chance of overcoming the oppressive atmosphere that seemed to fill the house. He almost laughed out loud as he spotted an umbrella stand in one corner that looked to be the other leg of the troll that donated the one in Grimmauld.

He began to get nervous as Bella led him across the hall an up a flight of stairs to the next floor. She stopped at the top of the stairs noticing Harry's apprehension.

"Try not to worry Harry, for what its worth I've never known him to lie either and he did agree to your terms." she said looking into his eyes. Feeling bold she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before taking his hand and leading him down the hallway where her master was waiting. As she reached the door she let go of his hand.

Harry was shocked when Bella kissed him on the cheek. He didn't really know why she did it or what to think about it and wasn't given much time to figure it out as she took his hand and pulled him down the hall. One thing was for sure though; he wasn't nearly as nervous about meeting Voldemort as he had been a moment earlier.

His scar had been tingling since he arrived at the Manor but the pain flared full force as the door to Voldemort's study was swung open to reveal the Dark Lord himself sitting behind a large desk looking back at him. Harry's hand shot up clutching his head, a grimace of pain shooting across his features as he let a gasp escape from between his lips.

Voldemort studied the young man for a moment realizing quickly that the connection they shared was causing him pain. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the connection and raised his Occulmency shields against it to protect Harry from the pain being in his presence was causing. As he opened his eyes he was pleased to see Harry was no longer hurting though he was wiping some sweat off his forehead.

"I apologize Mr. Potter, we have an agreement and it was not my intention to cause you unnecessary pain." he said in a silky voice before gesturing to the seats in front of his desk. "Please have a seat."

Harry took a deep breath and sat down in one of the seats while Bella sat in the other one.

"I must admit Harry I was surprised to hear you wanted to meet with me and am extremely curious as to what you would deem important enough to risk your life for by coming to my home." Voldemort said looking across his desk into the startling green eyes of his nemesis, eyes that seemed nervous but not afraid.

"I'm here because I don't have much of a life to risk. My entire life I've been manipulated and lied to, used by one person or another to meet their own ends and I'm tired of it. I'm here because you are the one person who as odd as it may seem has never lied to me. It's hard to believe I'm coming to the man who has been trying to kill me since I was one year old for help but I am. I would like to make a deal with you." Harry could feel himself relaxing and becoming braver as he talked.

"I see, and what is it that you want from me?"

"I want to leave the war behind and be left alone. I want to be neutral, neither dark nor light. I want to be normal and not have to worry about the next battle or fight. I want out."

Voldemort looked at Harry for a long minute before responding. "I'm not sure that's possible Harry. From what I know of the prophecy that exists between us I will not be able to fulfill my goals until you are dead."

He was surprised when Harry smiled. "That's not exactly true. In return for what I ask, I will give you both of the prophecies. I would also ask that you leave a few of my friends alone as well."

"Both of the prophecies?" Voldemort asked once again surprised. "What do you mean both?"

"I mean both as in there are two of them and I assure you that I do not stand in the way of your goals."

Voldemort thought about what Harry was saying for several minutes studying him across his desk the entire time. "You do realize I could break in to your mind and take the prophecies from you."

Harry nodded a small feeling of insecurity briefly flaring up in his chest. "I know but our agreement was to talk and not harm each other and forcefully removing those memories would definitely harm me."

The Dark Lord smiled at the audacity of the young man sitting in front of him. He hated to admit it to himself but he was beginning to like him. "You are correct. I will not take them by force. Assuming that what you tell me is true and that by prophecy you do not stand in my way I would agree to your terms with a couple of additional conditions. You will allow me to perform a Legilimancy scan of all of your memories so that I may ascertain for myself that you are telling me the truth. I will agree to leave a small group of your friends alone as long as they don't fight against me or work for Dumbledore. And I cannot be held responsible for collateral damage to them should they be hurt during an attack or decide to fight back if they witness one. I can only promise that I won't target them."

"Agreed however during the scan you must promise to avoid any information about the light side. As I've said I want to be neutral and that means not working for them or you."

"Agreed."

Reaching across the desk Voldemort held out his hand for Harry to shake. Harry took his hand feeling a shiver run down his spine as he shook on the deal they had just reached.

As Voldemort pulled back from the handshake he asked a question. "I'm curious what has driven you to strike such a bargain with me."

A scowl appeared on Harry's face as he answered. "Dumbledore."

Voldemort looked back questioningly.

"It'll make more sense if I just tell you the prophecies."

"Very well."

Taking a deep breath Harry began. "The first prophecy is the one you know the first two lines of. The entire thing goes like this… 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies'"

Voldemort listened carefully to the entire prophecy and thought through it's meaning for several minutes before addressing Harry. "According to this prophecy you do in fact stand in my way. How is it that you can claim otherwise?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, that is what this one says and that's what you have been led to believe by Dumbledore when he leaked the first two lines to you on purpose but he created this prophecy from the real one to hide the true savior. It's false."

Rage coursed through the red eyes of the Dark Lord as he absorbed what Harry was telling him. "And the real prophecy?" he hissed angrily.

Once again Harry nodded and began. "'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to a line which has always defied him, born to the line of the lion. Hidden from the Dark Lord at the cost of the innocent, he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the second month dies.'

As he listened to the real prophecy everything became clear to him. Harry and his family had been used by Dumbledore to hide the heir of Gryffindor, the one person with the power to destroy him, the heir of Slytherin. Looking across the desk at Harry he finally understood why he had come. Finishing mulling over the prophecies and their meanings Voldemort picked up his wand and pointed it at Harry who he could see was now very nervous.

"Don't worry Harry, as long as you relax and don't fight it you will feel no pain. I will abide by our agreement as you are abiding by it as well."

Harry nodded and Voldemort said his spell while staring into Harry's eyes. "Legilimens!"

Harry felt a light pressure within his mind for a few seconds before he relaxed and images of his entire life began flashing across his memory much like watching a movie on fast forward.

Harry was crying in his crib for hours but no one came. He crawled across the living room floor to get a toy only to have it taken away from him and given to another baby who seemed to be a bit fat. It was Christmas and Harry was not allowed in the living room while the rest of his family opened their presents, ate treats and sang songs. It was breakfast and Harry spilled some milk. He was dragged to the cupboard under the stairs and thrown in. He would not be allowed out for three days. He was being chased by a group of boys in front of a school when he suddenly appeared on the roof not knowing how he got there. He was lectured by the principal and when his uncle found out spent another three days in his cupboard.

The scenes continued to flash by faster and faster. Voldemort watched Harry's entire life from his earliest memories through Hogwarts. He watched Harry's first year remembering his attempt to get the Sorcerer's stone. He watched him kill the basilisk in Salazar's chamber feeling respect for the young wizard's deed. He saw him fight dementors and rescue Sirius. He saw every event of the Tri-Wizard Tournament as Harry went through them as well as what happened after. He watched everything pulling back after he watched the prophecy in Dumbledores pensive during Harry's meeting with the old man following the Department of Mysteries incident.

After ending the spell Voldemort sat back for a long time going over the memories amazed at what he'd seen and shocked as well. He felt a new found respect for the young wizard and everything he had been through. It did not escape Voldemort's notice how similar their lives outside of Hogwart's walls had been.

He looked at Harry who he could see was emotionally torn having been forced to relive some of the worst memories of his life of which there were many. "We share a bond Harry, and not a bond of magic or blood but a kinship that comes from having similar lives. I find myself wondering how much of my life was manipulated by Albus Dumbledore."

"Probably more than you realize." Harry replied sympathetic to the question on Voldemort's mind.

The silence between them stretched out for several minutes before Voldemort turned to face Bella.

"Bella, in my potions lab you will find a small wooden box with twin snakes surrounding the latch. Bring it to me."

Rising from her chair Bella made a short bow and left the room. The silence continued for several more minutes until Bella returned placing the small box on the desk.

"/Open/" Voldemort hissed in Parsletonge.

With a small click the latch popped open and Voldemort was able to open the box. Inside were two vials of a pitch black potion. He held them up and examined them while talking to Harry.

"This is a potion of my own creation. I developed it to destroy the link between our minds. Not knowing the prophecy I have been hesitant to use it. It doesn't surprise me that we share a link as a by product of the night I cast the killing curse on you, what surprises me and what I have never understood is why the link did not die while I was less than spirit."

"That was Dumbledore's work as well. He expected me to be dead when he arrived in Godric's Hollow that night. He found the magic link between us and tied it to my scar. Then he made my scar so that it couldn't be removed."

Voldemort looked at Harry not the least bit surprised at the new information after everything he had just witnessed in the boys memories. Picking up his wand again he looked to Harry for approval. Receiving a nod he cast a series of spells that were very similar to what Harry and Sirius had used on the statues at his Aunt and Uncles house. After a great many spells and a lot of thought he placed his wand back on the desk.

"I believe once the connection is destroyed the spell tying the link to your scar will dissolve on its own. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to remove the scar."

Handing one of the potions across the desk to Harry he began explaining. "We need to take these at the same time. They work by occluding your mind completely from outside penetration which means that a side effect of taking this potion is that Legilimancy will no longer work on you."

Harry grinned; this was getting better and better. Holding up their potions the pair nodded to each other and swallowed the creations.

As the potion went down Harry was surprised to find it had no taste whatsoever. He had been prepared for a vile creation like he'd had the opportunity to taste many times before in the hospital wing at Hogwarts but there was nothing.

For a few minutes nothing seemed to happen and then the entire world began to dim. Slowly everything started to fade, the room around him seemed to grow darker and darker, the sounds from the Manor around him faded and he could no longer feel the chair he sat in. All of his senses were being taken away, slowly fading into oblivion. Just as everything was about to disappear completely the world snapped back into focus.

It was hard for Harry to describe the world as he now saw it but he felt smart. It was as if a presence he was so used to that he didn't even know it was there had been removed from his mind freeing it for his use. It was invigorating and Harry found himself smiling at the Dark Lord.

"Thank you."

"You're quite welcome Harry. I must say I feel much better myself. Who shall be protected under our agreement?"

Harry thought quickly about who he wanted. He hadn't initially planned on asking for protection for his friends but it seemed like a good idea when they were discussing the deal. "The Weasley's, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Remus Lupin and the Dursley's." he finally answered. "And if it's not too much to ask, their families."

"Remus Lupin and most of the Weasley's are in Dumbledore's Order and I'm surprised you would want to protect the Dursley's."

"Remus is going to quit the Order as soon as he sees Dumbledore. As for the Weasley's I understand but Ron and Ginny aren't." He then explained what had happened with the Dursley's and watched as Voldemort seemed to become even angrier at Dumbledore.

"Very well I shall not target them." Having finished the reason for their meeting Voldemort turned to Bella. "You have sworn a blood oath to this man. What are its terms?"

"I cannot lie to him by my magic and cannot harm him or allow harm to come to him through my inaction by my life." she said nervously.

"Then you are of no further use to me." Standing from his chair Voldemort picked up his wand and moved to a petrified Bella's side. Looking towards Harry he instructed him to not interfere. Grabbing her left hand he placed the tip of his wand on the dark mark and began chanting.

Pain coursed through Bella's body and her screams filled the air as his chant's intensified. A minute later the pain passed though she felt sore all over from the after effects. Looking at her arm she gasped as she realized she no longer wore the dark mark. She looked up to see Voldemort glaring at her.

"Fulfill your vow and be happy I did not kill you for your treachery."

"Yes my Lord, thank you." she said bowing deeply.

Taking his words as a dismissal she grabbed Harry and pulled him from the room. Looking back a final time as he left Harry gave the Dark Lord a small smile of thanks.

As soon as Bella and Harry were in the entrance hall she reapplied the glamour charms to hide Harry's identity and retrieved another portkey from within her robes. The instant Harry touched it they disappeared.

* * *

Remus and Sirius were sitting in a booth at the Leaky Cauldron getting nervous. Harry had left with Bella earlier and all they could do is watch, wait and pray everything would be ok. 

Relief flooded through Remus as he looked up finally seeing two figures approaching, one in a blue cloak and the other his charge Harry Potter. Jumping up from his seat he pulled Harry in for a quick hug.

"Sorry," he said pulling back slightly embarrassed, "but I've been worried about you."

"S-okay," Harry replied, "I'm just fine mum."

An invisible presence let out a sigh of relief and a chuckle at Harry's comment.

Remus rolled his eyes and led them to the booth he had been sitting in. He then added a silencing charm to the area. "So, how did it go?" he asked the pair.

Harry grinned widely. "Perfectly, in fact better than perfect, he agreed to everything and more, I'm free."

Remus and Sirius, though they couldn't see him, were both beaming. "Brilliant Harry! So you don't have to worry about the Death Eater's any more?"

"Nope, and neither do you as long as you quit the Order. I don't know what made me think of it but while I was making the deal I told him I didn't want my close friends or their families targeted either. He agreed so long as they don't fight against him. He knew you and some of the Weasley's were in Dumbledore's Order but I told him you were quitting so he agreed."

Remus continued to smile truly happy for Harry. "I'll quit the next time I see him. What else happened?"

"Well, he used Legilimancy on me and looked at my life."

A look of horror appeared on Remus face.

"Oh don't worry, I agreed to the scan and he didn't look at anything concerning the light side not that I know much of anything, he just wanted to look at my life so he could decide if I was telling him the truth or not. It actually worked out really well. After looking at my life he said we share a bond from having similar lives. Then we each drank a potion he created and the link between us went away he said that because of the way the potion works mind magics like Legilimancy will no longer work on me either."

"Wow. That's amazing Harry. I couldn't be happier for you. Is there anything else?"

Harry grinned. "There is one more thing." he said looking at Bella.

Returning his grin she pulled up the sleeve of her robe revealing her unblemished forearm. "It hurt like hell but I can't ever remember feeling as good as I do now." she said grinning ear to ear.

"Congratulations Bella. This has been a great day!" Remus said genuinely happy for Sirius cousin.

"It sure has and it's going to get even better!" exclaimed Harry.

"How so?" Remus asked.

"Cause I get to see you in my aunt's dress again!" Harry replied generating a round of laughter.

The laughter finally died and realizing it was getting late they decided it was time for Harry to return to Privet Drive. As they were standing up Bella handed a ring to Remus and another one to Harry.

"I'm still wanted by the Ministry so I can't exactly go with you but if you need me just tap the ring twice with your wand and I'll know. There's a tracking charm on them that activates when you call me so I'll be able to find you wherever you are."

The rings disappeared as they slid them on their fingers though they could still feel them. "Thanks Bella, for everything." Harry said giving her a hug.

Bella returned the hug and once again felt it ended far too quickly. As she released him she waved to Remus and the spot where she thought Sirius was and left the pub.

Climbing in to the Dursley's car Remus pointed it towards Surrey. When they were about forty five minutes away Remus pulled over and transfigured their clothes. They each downed their potion shuddering as the changes washed over them and continued their drive home.

Arriving at Privet Drive Remus parked the car and the pair made their way inside. After greeting Petunia and Dudley they went to Harry's room to wait for the polyjuice potion to wear off. Once they were back to normal and Remus had fixed their clothes they came back down stairs where the Dursley's were getting ready for dinner. They both noticed an extra place had been set at the table.

"Remus, I've set a place for you I hope you can stay for dinner." Petunia said.

"I'd love too, thank you."

Dinner was a delightful affair and everyone enjoyed the meal and the light conversation. It was almost over when Harry mentioned going to Gringotts and the subject of Sirius Will and Remus being Harry's guardian came up.

"You're Harry's guardian? I thought we were. Does that mean he's leaving?" Petunia asked beginning to get upset. Vernon and Dudley seemed to be paying very close attention as well.

"I'm his magical guardian. In the muggle world you are his guardians. He'll be staying here at least through his birthday."

Petunia exhaled a breath and excused herself dragging Vernon into the living room. A very short minute later they returned both grinning widely.

"Remus," Petunia began, "we were wondering if you would like to stay here this summer? You're welcome to the guest room and I'm sure Harry would love it if you were here."

Remus seemed shocked at the offer. "Are you sure you wouldn't mind? I don't want to impose."

Harry was beaming and looking hopefully at Remus as Petunia responded. "It would be no trouble at all. We would love to have you."

"Then I accept, thank you very much." Remus said sharing a grin with Harry.

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** Thank you all for reading and all the great reviews! I hope everyone liked the much awaited meeting with Voldy. I think this chapter answered most of the questions that were posted. 

Pairing Update: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself, keep guessing!)

We'll find out Harry's animagus form in the next chapter. What would you like to see it be and why? I will say that his animagus form isn't really important to the story it's just something I see Sirius and Remus wanting to teach him since they did it with his father in the Marauders days.

Up to this point the writing has been coming really easy, the chapters spilling out almost as fast as I could type and have needed a minimal amount of reviewing before I could post them. The next one has been giving me some problems though and there are a couple more that will be tough in the near future so updates may slow down a bit but I'll keep at it.

Thanks again for all the reviews! They really help me a lot!


	7. Summer

**Chapter 7 – Summer**

As soon as everyone was done with their dinner Remus returned to Grimmauld Place to collect his belongings. Working quickly he packed his few possessions in the battered trunk he carried. He was taking a final look around his room when he heard a greeting coming from the door.

"Wotcher Remus." Tonks said with a grin.

"Hello Nymphadora." he replied earning a scowl and balled up fist shaking at him.

Tonks auror training allowed her to assess the situation in the room with only a glance. "Where are you going? Dumbledore sending you on a mission?" she asked.

A look of anger briefly passed across Remus face at the mention of the Headmaster and he wondered if he should say anything but figured it wouldn't be long before everyone including Dumbledore found out anyway. "No, I've decided to quit the Order. I'm also staying with Harry at the Dursley's for the rest of the summer, I actually just finished packing."

The young auror was surprised. She couldn't believe Remus would quit the Order just like that and couldn't imagine the Dursley's inviting a wizard to stay in their home let alone one who was a magical creature. "The Dursley's really asked you to stay?"

Remus just shrugged his shoulders and fed her the excuse they had come up with during dinner. "It seems they'll do just about anything for 200 pounds a week."

"Why are you quitting the Order?"

"Are you asking for you or for Dumbledore?"

Tonks raised an eyebrow at the question. "Does it matter?"

"I see. Well, I need to be going Tonks, I'm sure we'll see each other around." Remus said picking up his suitcase and walking towards the door.

"Wait, for me, I promise I won't say anything to Dumbledore."

Remus sighed. "I don't think the Order, particularly its leadership, has Harry's best interests in mind. I've recently been named Harry's magical guardian so I'm going to do what Dumbledore has failed to do all these years and make sure Harry has some semblance of a happy life."

A grin formed on Remus face as he saw the shocked look that Tonks was now wearing. As he left the room he sighed and turned back towards his friend. "Look, I don't want to put you in the middle of this, if you feel you have to tell Dumbledore everything its ok. I know he's going to find out anyway I just thought it would be best if I told him myself." Remus stopped to think for a minute before continuing. "In fact why don't you go ahead and tell him but could I ask a favor of you before you do?"

"Sure Remus what is it?"

"Truth be told I'm a little worried about what his response is going to be. Could you tell a bunch of other people first?"

It seemed like an odd request but she couldn't really see any reason not too. "I suppose I could tell anyone who wanders by before Dumbledore does."

Remus nodded. "Thanks Tonks."

With a final smile Remus went downstairs to the entryway where he popped back to the Dursley's home to get settled in.

"Hey Remus, everything go ok?" Harry said greeting his new guardian with a smile.

"No problems. I did run in to Tonks as I was getting ready to leave and she wanted to know what was going on. I told her about quitting the Order and moving in here. I also mentioned being your guardian, I think she was surprised." he said smiling mischievously.

"Is she going to tell Dumbledore?" Harry asked a little bit worried about what could happen.

"Yes she is. I told her she could. It doesn't really matter though. You know he's going to find out soon anyway."

Harry nodded in understanding.

"It occurred to me while I was talking to her that after what Dumbledore did to Sirius he might try something with me so I asked her to tell some other people before telling him. I think if everyone knows I'm your guardian now and living here he'll be less likely to try anything."

"Maybe I should write all my friends and let them know too."

Remus smiled. "I think that would be a great idea Harry."

_

* * *

Ron, _

_Hey, I hope everyone's doing ok. Guess what? Remus is my guardian now and the Dursley's are letting him stay here this summer! I couldn't believe it when they agreed. He's promised to tell me a lot of stories about the Marauders and my parents when they were in school and after._

_Well, I just wanted to let you know what's going on this summer. Please let your family know I'm alright and that Remus is here taking care of me so they don't need to worry about the Dursley's this summer._

_Harry_

_

* * *

Dear Hermione, _

_How's your summer going so far? You've probably spent most of your time reading and being upset that there's no homework since it was our owl year (ha, just teasing)._

_I just wanted to let you know that this summer won't be a bad one after all. Remus is staying here with me. I can't believe it myself but the Dursley's are letting him stay. He's also my magical guardian now! I can't wait to hear the stories he's promised to tell me about my parents and Sirius._

_Well, I just wanted to say hi. I hope you and your parents are doing well.  
__Harry_

_

* * *

Dear Ginevra, _

_I'm imagining the look on your face right now after seeing me use your given name and can't help but laugh at the picture in my minds eye. Just kidding, actually I really like your name Gin. I hope you're well and everything is well at the Burrow. I miss you all._

_I just wanted to write to share some good news with you. Remus is my magical guardian now! He's also staying here at the Dursley's with me this summer so it should be a pretty good one for a change. I know! I couldn't believe my relatives let him stay either._

_I also wanted to thank you for everything you did for me last year. It really meant a lot to me that you were there for me when I needed you. Thanks. I was hoping we could write this summer and get to know each other better. What's your favorite color?_

_Write back soon,  
__Harold_

_P.S. Actually it's just Harry but I thought that would be funny, grin!_

* * *

Harry smiled imagining Ginny's reaction to his letter as he finally finished it. Attaching the letters to Hedwig's leg he carried her to the window and after wishing her a good flight watched her disappear in to the night. 

Stripping down to his boxers Harry settled down for bed. There was a smile playing on his lips as he closed his eyes knowing he would have pleasant dreams. It had been another great day.

* * *

It was early afternoon the next day and Harry found himself sitting on a bench in the park chatting with Remus when he looked up to see an old bearded man walking towards them wearing an expensive three piece suit. The only problem was that the suit was about fifty years out of date. 

Looking up as the man arrived at their bench Harry was the first to speak. "Professor."

"Hello Harry, it's good to see you out and about." Dumbledore responded cheerfully. He noted worriedly that he was unable to get a glimpse into Harry's memories and thoughts when he looked into the young mans eyes but decided now was not the time to address that particular issue.

"Hello Albus."

"Remus it's good to see you as well and actually why I have come to visit today."

"What can I do for you?" Remus replied.

Before answering Remus question Dumbledore turned back towards Harry. "Actually this concerns some Order business, would you mind giving us a few minutes Harry?"

With a frown Harry started to get up but a hand from Remus stopped him. "That's not necessary Albus. I'm quitting the Order so since we won't be talking about any Order business Harry can stay."

Harry smiled at his guardian while Dumbledore continued to maintain his mask of indifference though you could see the disappointment in his eyes.

"Why would you do such a thing Remus? Don't you want to help in our struggle against Voldemort? Don't you think fighting for the light is the right thing to do?"

Remus took a deep breath as he looked the Headmaster in the eye. Not for the first time since he had been dealing with him he thanked the gods that his inner wolf protected his mind from intrusion. "No, I do not want to help in the fight against Voldemort regardless of whether or not you think it is the right thing to do. I have recently become Harry's guardian and plan on devoting my life to making sure he has something resembling a happy life for once. As far as I'm concerned that is the right thing to do."

"I heard you were now his guardian. I'm curious how that came to be. The last I knew as Headmaster of his school I was appointed his magical guardian."

Remus grinned and placed an arm around Harry's shoulders. "I recently went to Gringotts where I was notified of Sirius Will. Among other things he left me his guardianship over Harry. There was a bit of a commotion as the goblins realized that Sirius had never actually been granted custody but we quickly discovered that for some reason the Potter's Will had never been executed. It was an easy thing to execute their Will granting Harry's guardianship to Sirius who's Will then transferred it to me."

"I see." Dumbledore responded with a small smile on his face though it was easy to tell he was not happy about the situation.

"I've come to an agreement with the Dursley's." Remus continued, "I'm renting the guest room from them for the summer so I can spend as much time as possible with Harry. We had talked about moving to Grimmauld Place together since we now own it but realized he needed to remain here to recharge the blood wards. You can remove the guards though since I'll be there all the time."

"Isn't this great professor! I already wrote all my friends, this is going to be the best summer ever!" Harry exclaimed excitedly getting a snort from Remus.

"It is indeed Harry." Dumbledore replied with a forced smile. Internally he was upset and concerned at the turn in events but was pacified by the thought that they were still remaining in position on his chess board of life. Turning to Remus he addressed the issue of Harry's guard. "I think it would be unwise to remove the Order presence from Privet Drive and I would like you to reconsider leaving the Order. I would be happy to give you the summer off to spend with Harry and you could return to duty when school resumes in September."

"No thank you Albus, the only thing I want to do right now is take care of Harry."

"Very well, perhaps I'll speak to you about it again at the end of the summer."

Remus just shrugged his shoulders. After exchanging goodbyes Albus wandered towards a small clump of trees that were nearby and Harry and Remus heard the familiar pop of the headmaster disapperating.

The instant he was gone Harry and Remus both started laughing.

"Damn Harry, it was all I could do to keep from laughing when you told him you'd written all your friends already." Remus chuckled.

"Oh, and you didn't have me cringing when you started going on about the blood wards?"

Remus ruffled Harry's hair as he stood up. "Come on Harry that just reminded me, we still need to teach you to apperate."

Harry jumped up excitedly. "Brilliant!"

They talked about apparition during the walk back to number four and Remus was almost laughing as he watched Harry become more and more excited during the conversation.

"Alright Harry, are you ready to try?" he said as they entered Harry's bedroom.

Harry nodded fervently.

"Ok, close your eyes and picture yourself standing on the other side of your room in front of your window. Do you remember the sensation of taking a portkey?"

Harry nodded hoping this wouldn't be the same.

"Good. Forget about the tug behind the naval and the feeling of being pulled through space. Concentrate on what it felt like to disappear and reappear. Can you remember that?"

Once again Harry nodded.

"Excellent. Concentrate on that feeling of disappearing and reappearing while thinking about where you want to go which is standing in front of your window. Concentrate on the sensation of disappearing and reappearing."

Harry stood still for several minutes before a soft pop sounded and Harry was on the other side of the room.

Remus smiled as he noticed Harry was still concentrating. "Harry, open your eyes."

He was shocked when he did and found himself in front of his window. Spinning around he sent a large smile to Remus. "I did it!"

"Yes you did, and you didn't make much noise, very nicely done Harry. Why don't you try to come back now?"

With a nod Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on returning. A few seconds later there was another small pop and Harry was standing next to Remus who patted him on the back. "Excellent Harry." Remus said proudly. "This time I want you to do it with your eyes open and I want you to go to my bedroom and back."

"Ok." Harry said and a second later he disappeared. It wasn't long before he appeared next to Remus side again.

"Excellent Harry, did you have any problems?"

"No, I actually thought it would be a lot harder than this."

Remus smiled. "No, it would be if you had trouble focusing on what you wanted to do. The main reason they make you wait until you're older to learn is that as you learn more advanced magics you gain the focus you need to do this properly."

As he looked at Harry, Remus could see the excitement he carried at learning this skill. He remembered how much he had enjoyed learning it as well. "Tell you what, why don't we pop over to the Leaky Cauldron for a Butter Beer?"

"Are you sure I can make it that far?"

"Absolutely, you shouldn't have any problems apperating to places you've been around Europe. After you've been doing this for awhile I'll teach you to apperate to coordinates and places you haven't been."

"Cool." Harry said with a grin.

"Alright then, I'll meet you in the back alley by the entrance to Diagon Alley." Remus said before disappearing with a small pop.

With his large grin still firmly in place Harry followed not far behind.

* * *

After enjoying a drink at the Leaky Cauldron Harry and Remus returned to have dinner with the Dursley's and not long after found themselves back in Harry's room. 

"Here you go Harry." Remus said handing him the vial of potion he had obtained in Knockturn Alley.

Harry took the potion and looked at it with a little bit of anxiety. "Does it hurt much?"

Sirius, who was floating next to Remus, smiled at his godson. "Yes the transformation is painful. Your entire body's structure is being changed. Don't worry too much though, it's nothing you can't handle and it will get better once you learn how to do it. While you're changing I want you to concentrate on what it feels like. Think about how your bones and skin feel as they change shape. I know it doesn't sound fun but it will help later on while you're learning to do it without the potion."

After watching Remus conjure a large mirror for Harry to see himself in he stared at the potion for several seconds before taking a deep breath and downing the entire contents of the vial in one gulp. A grimace appeared on his face and a shiver ran through his body at the awful taste of the concoction.

He felt the sensation of ice water flowing through his veins as it spread throughout his body. The instant the feeling had covered every inch of him the pain started. Harry could feel his bones stretching and breaking as his skeleton reshaped itself. He felt his organs moving around and changing shape. His skin contracted in places and stretched in others. He felt his hair receded in to his scalp and short soft hairs grow all over his body. His fingernails changed to claws and sharp teeth grew rapidly in his mouth.

Remus and Sirius watched in excitement as the transformation took place.

"What kind of cat is that?" Sirius asked his long time friend.

"I think… yes, he's a Jaguar." a very impressed Remus replied. As he examined Harry's form he could just make out a lightning bolt shaped patch of fur on his forehead though it was well hidden among the natural spots on his coat.

The pain Harry felt while changing forms was considerable but passed fairly quickly and Harry found himself on all fours feeling more physically powerful than he had ever felt before. Walking up to the mirror he found a large cat staring back at him. He heard Remus tell Sirius he was a Jaguar and grinned internally as he realized he could accompany Remus during the full moon once he learned how to transform on his own.

As he examined his face he noticed he had kept his green eyes and there was a lightning bolt shaped patch of fur on his forehead. Stretching his limbs he moved around the room slowly and awkwardly for several minutes until he learned to let his cat instincts control his movements. Once he had mastered walking and moving he turned and pounced on an unsuspecting Remus, tackling him to the ground much to Sirius amusement.

Harry laughed though it came out as more of a growl as Remus pushed him off only to have him pounce on him again and give him a big slobbery lick on the face.

"Harry!" Remus yelled as he wiped himself off.

Sirius was doubled over in laughter as he watched his godson's antics.

After jumping back off Remus, Harry returned to the other side of the room where he began to return to his human form. After another slow and painful transformation Harry lay on the floor panting.

"That was brilliant!" Harry finally managed to exclaim between breaths.

"Nice form Harry!" Sirius said looking at him proudly.

"Yes," Remus said still wiping his face, "very nice. Your father would be proud Harry."

Harry grinned and blushed a little at the Marauders praise.

Sirius suddenly got an evil grin on his face as he turned to Remus. "Mr. Padfoot would like to tell Mr. Moony that his godson now requires a name so that he may become an official Marauder."

Remus almost laughed out loud at the look on Sirius face and wondered what was coming. "Mr. Moony agrees with Mr. Padfoot and wonders if he has a name in mind?

Harry was now looking at the pair with a smile and a bit of apprehension.

"Mr. Padfoot would like to let Mr. Moony know that he does have a name in mind."

"Mr. Moony requests that Mr. Padfoot stop being a git and tell Mr. Moony the name."

Sirius winked at Remus before continuing. "Mr. Padfoot believes Mr. Moony should pull his panties out of his crack as they seem to be making him cranky. Mr. Padfoot also believes the newest Marauders name should be Mr. Kitty."

Harry's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open in horror at the name Sirius had chosen but his eyes narrowed as he realized he'd been tricked and Sirius and Remus were both laughing at the look on his face.

"Mr. Moony would like to request once again that Mr. Padfoot quit being a git and tell us the real name before his godson reaps horrors on us the like of which we could never imagine."

Sirius finally stopped laughing and looked at Harry who he could tell was waiting expectantly for his name. "Mr. Stealth."

* * *

The summer passed quickly and between Remus and Sirius staying with him and the reformed Dursley's, Harry could honestly say it was by far the best of his life. 

He spent a lot of his time working on the animagus transformation with Remus and Sirius. He was coming along nicely according to the Marauders but he knew it would be a long time before he was able to complete the change. He also spent a lot of time writing to Ginny whom he was getting to know very well and found he was beginning to think of her as more that a friend.

It was almost his birthday when he woke one morning to an owl tapping on his window. Upon opening it a large tawny owl flew in depositing several envelopes on his desk before leaving.

Picking up the first one he found it was from the Ministry of Magic.

_Mr. Harry Potter_

_Below please find the results of your Ordinary Wizarding Level tests. Core courses are worth 2 Owls, 1 for a grade of Acceptable or Exceeds, 2 for a grade of Outstanding. Supplemental courses are worth 1 Owl for a grade of Acceptable or better._

_Core Courses  
__Transfiguration – O  
__Charms - O  
__Defense Against the Dark Arts – O+  
__Potions – E_

_Supplemental Courses  
__Astronomy - A  
__History of Magic - P  
__Care of Magical Creatures - O  
__Divination – E_

_You have earned 11 owls out of a possible 12 (your total includes an extra point for the + in DADA)._

_Congratulations,  
__Griselda Marchbanks  
__Wizarding Examination Authority, Ministry of Magic_

"Wow!" Harry said out loud having received much better marks than he had expected.

After several minutes he was finally able to get over the shock of his scores and address the other two letters on his desk. One was his school letter asking him to select the courses he planned on taking his sixth year and the other was from his head of house informing him that his quidditch ban had been lifted and he had been selected as the team captain for Gryffindor. It also contained a shrunken FireBolt.

"Good Morning Harry." Remus said from the doorway as Harry was finishing reading his letters.

"Morning Remus, look, my owls came." Harry replied holding his letter out for his guardian.

As Remus read the letter a large smile appeared on his face before he pulled Harry in to a large hug. "This is incredible Harry! Nicely done!"

"I also got my Hogwarts letter and was made quidditch captain." Harry told him making his grin even larger.

"Absolutely brilliant!" Remus replied. "Are you sure you don't want to return to Hogwarts?"

"I'm sure. It's enough to know I got it." Harry replied with a smile.

Remus was nodding. "Alright, so long as you're sure. I wouldn't answer them yet though."

"I know. I wasn't planning on it."

"Why don't you write Ron and Hermione to let them know how you did? And maybe Ginny?" he said grinning.

Harry blushed as Remus turned and left the room chuckling after teasing him about writing to Ginny. Harry had been thinking of the youngest Weasley a lot lately and realized he had a bit of a crush on her. Shaking himself from his thoughts he sat at his desk to write some letters.

* * *

Harry's birthday arrived along with a flurry of owls. His friends all sent presents and letters wishing him the best. Ron gave him the usual orange quidditch memorabilia from his favorite team while Hermione gave him some books on defense. Mrs. Weasley sent him a cake as did Hagrid. 

He had been particularly looking forward to opening Ginny's gift and wasn't disappointed when he opened the package to find a necklace. It was a small crystal hanging from a leather cord and as he touched it he noticed it changed color and he felt a feeling of familiarity and comfort flow through him. Curious as to what it meant he opened the letter.

_Dear Harold, (grin)_

_Happy Birthday Harry! I hope you like my gift, I didn't know what to get you and didn't have much money so I bought the crystal and had mum help me with the enchantments. It's a mood crystal, though also a little bit more. The colors will change depending on your mood when you hold it in your hand…_

_Black – negativity, nervousness  
__Red – passion, anger  
__Yellow – mental processes, ego  
__Green – healing, average  
__Blue – relaxed, happiness  
__White – frustration, confusion, boredom_

_There are some other colors too but those are the main ones. You may also see the colors mixing and swirling around one another when more than one applies. I also added a bit of myself to the crystal so if your ever feeling upset you can hold it and it will hopefully help calm you._

_I hope you like it Harry. Thanks for writing to me this summer, I've been writing to a few people but always look forward to your letters the most. Have a Happy Birthday and tell Remus Hi for me!_

_With Love,  
__Ginevra_

Grinning as he finished her letter he immediately placed the necklace around his neck feeling the calmness she spoke of as he handled the crystal, he also noticed the color was a mixture of red and blue.

Tucking the necklace inside his shirt he returned his attention to the letters he had received picking up the final envelope on which his name was written in the familiar loopy script of Albus Dumbledore.

_Harry,_

_I hope you have had a good summer with Remus and are having an enjoyable birthday. This note is to inform you that you may now leave Privet Drive._

_I will be sending an Order escort to bring you and Remus to Grimmauld Place. They will arrive tomorrow morning at 10:00. Please be ready._

_Sincerely,  
__Albus Dumbledore  
__Headmaster Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

"Remus!" Harry said as he knocked on his guardian's bedroom door.

The talking on the other side of the door ceased followed by the sound of footsteps and the door opening to reveal the grinning Marauder. Harry noticed the room was empty and assumed Sirius was the other voice he had heard.

"Happy Birthday Harry!" he said.

"Thanks Remus. Here, you should see this." Harry replied handing the letter from Dumbledore to the werewolf.

Remus read the letter quickly, sighed and pulled Harry in to the room before closing the door. "Sirius, read this." he said to the empty space.

"Looks like it's time to leave then." Sirius disembodied voice muttered after a few seconds.

"Why don't you write your letters Harry but wait to send them out until we leave probably sometime this afternoon." Remus saw Harry nodding in understanding. He was about to leave when Remus stopped him. "Wait a sec, Sirius and I want to give you our present."

Pulling a small wrapped box out of his top dresser drawer he handed it to Harry who noticed Sirius had appeared and was floating next to Remus with a smile on his face.

Harry nervously unwrapped the gift hoping he wasn't about to become the recipient of the latest Marauder prank as he did so. Opening the box he removed what looked like a miniature trunk.

Remus waved his wand over Harry and the trunk muttering a quick spell. "I just needed to key you in to the trunks features Harry. Tap it with your wand." Remus said.

Pulling his wand he tapped the lid of the trunk and it immediately grew to its full size.

"It has three compartments." Sirius began explaining. "Each one is magically expanded to be twice the trunks size. Just touch one of the small circles by the latch to open whichever compartment you want to get in, only persons who are keyed in can open it which right now is you and Remus."

Harry had a huge smile on his face as he opened the first compartment. He was surprised to find two books and some photo albums inside. Picking them up Harry was overwhelmed with joy as he read the titles, 'The Marauders Guide to Marauding' and 'The Marauders Guide to the Animagus Transformation' both by Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

Setting down the books he jumped at Remus pulling him into a huge emotion filled hug. "Thanks Moony." he said. Loosening the embrace he turned towards Sirius giving him a heartfelt smile. "Thanks Padfoot."

"You're welcome Harry. The photos are mostly of us and your parents. Just some that we collected over the years while at Hogwarts and after. And the books, well," Sirius said with a mischievous grin, "let's just say they contain the combined experiences of the marauders while we were in school and I expect you to make your godfathers proud."

Harry grinned at his smile and tone and almost laughed out loud as he saw Remus rolling his eyes and shaking his head though he also wore a large grin.

Leaving his 'godfathers' as he now thought of them both Harry took his new trunk back to his room to write some letters and pack his belongings for the trip he would be taking later. Remus left shortly after to make travel arrangements for them.

The Dursleys weren't happy he was leaving but understood the situation and wished him the best. They had surprised him to no end when he opened a large birthday present to find they had gotten him a laptop computer with all the extras.

After many goodbyes and orders to take care of each other Remus cast a few glamour charms on Harry to mask his appearance. They then sent Hedwig to deliver the letters Harry had written and apperated to the back alley of the Leaky Cauldron where Bella and Sirius were waiting for them.

"Hi Harry." Bella said happily, grinning at the handsome young man before her.

"Hi Bella, it's good to see you again." he replied giving her a quick hug.

After exchanging greetings the group made their way to muggle London and hailed a cab beginning their adventure.

**

* * *

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* * *

AN:** Thank you all for the reviews! Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out, but getting a job is a higher priority for me right now, oh well. 

This chapter was difficult for me to write as it's more of a transitional chapter than anything else. Still I think it answered a lot of your questions. Voldemort will be out of the loop for awhile now but will be coming back later. Everyone's reactions will be in the next chapter. Several people are wondering where Harry is going to go to school, you'll find out in two chapters.

There were several comments concerning Harry notifying the Weasley's and everyone else of his deal with Voldy. My thinking falls along the same lines as apathetica's (see reviews). I don't see them leaving the fight regardless. The deal Harry made concerning his friends was an extra thing he thought of at the spur of the moment and I have no plans to tell anyone about it. One I don't think it would make a difference in their stances and two Dumbledore would find out. That would obviously be bad.

Animagus: Thanks for all your great ideas. I know a Jaguar is probably a bit boring but in the end I decided based on two things. One, I'm not making Harry overly powerful or special as far as his wizarding skills are concerned so nixed a magical creature. And two, I wanted him to be of a fairly good size so he could spend the full moon with Remus like his father did.

Pairing Update: Author smirks… Ha…

vash2004 – Some great ideas. I actually am using variations of some of what you wrote…

lmill123 – I don't have a set age for Dumble's grandson but yes, I figure him to be around the same age as Remus, maybe just a bit younger. The wands are an excellent point, I actually meant to address that in the first chapter but guess I didn't. I think Harry getting Voldy's brother wand was a result of the connection between them.

I can't thank you all enough for all the great reviews I'm receiving! Thanks.


	8. Missing

**Chapter 8 – Missing**

Albus Dumbledore sat in his comfortable chair behind his large mahogany desk thinking about the visit he would be making to Grimmauld Place later this afternoon. It was August 1st and looking at the clock on his office wall he knew the Order would be picking up Harry and Remus any minute now.

He found he was troubled by the new relationship Harry shared with his parent's friend and last true Marauder. The loss of control he was beginning to experience over the last Potter weighed heavily on his mind and he knew he needed to do something soon before things got out of hand and it was completely gone.

Lost in his musings of what he needed to do, he failed to notice Minerva entering his office until she was standing in front of his desk.

"Hello Minerva." he said quickly regaining control of his faculties. As he took in the appearance of his transfiguration professor he could tell she was clearly upset about something.

"Albus, I've just received Mr. Potters reply to the letters we sent out last week."

Dumbledore's eyes lit up with amusement. "Ahh Minerva, am I to assume Mr. Potter failed to list the classes he wishes to take?" He chuckled internally and grinned at the look of consternation and the scowl that appeared on his Deputy Headmistress's face.

"No he did not list the classes he wishes to take Albus." she snipped back at him. "In fact I think since you seem to find this so amusing you should read what he did send back."

Reaching across the desk Albus accepted the letter she offered him and began to read.

_Professor McGonagall,_

_Thank you for showing your faith in me by asking me to be the Quidditch Captain for Gryffindor. I regret that I will not be able to accept the position as I will not be attending Hogwarts this year. On that note, please do not expect my class list to be returned._

_Once again, thank you Professor,  
__Harry Potter_

Dumbledore sat up straight in his chair as he read the letter which now had his full attention. He noticed another note on the parchment below Harry's.

_Headmaster Dumbledore and Deputy Headmistress McGonagall,_

_This letter is to inform you that Harry Potter will not be attending Hogwarts for his sixth year. As his magical guardian I hereby withdraw him from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

_Sincerely,  
__Remus Lupin_

Albus heard a gasp and saw Minerva take a step back from the desk making him realize he had become so angry he had let his control slip. Quickly bringing his aura under control and schooling his features he addressed his deputy head.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention Minerva. The Order is taking Harry and Remus to Grimmauld place today so I will have a talk with him this afternoon and straighten this mess out. I assure you that you will have your Quidditch Captain this year." He smiled as he spoke and let his eyes twinkle just a little bit brighter calming Minerva who let out a breath she had been holding.

After nodding to the headmaster she turned to leave when Tonks and Moody rushed into the office. Albus smile and twinkle slipped away as he took in their anxious looks. He had a feeling he knew what was coming.

"Albus, the boy and Remus are gone. They left yesterday afternoon." Moody said in a gruff voice.

"Tonks." Dumbledore said sternly turning to the young auror. "You were supposed to be on watch yesterday afternoon. What happened?"

Tonks swallowed heavily not enjoying having the stern gaze of the headmaster fall on her. "Not much sir. I was in the front yard all day and Jones was watching the back. Remus left for a little while in the morning but was back before lunch. Harry never left. I checked with the guards who took over and they never saw Harry or Remus leave."

Albus was fuming inside at the perceived loss of his pawn. He had to be found immediately and Remus would have to be dealt with. "Call an emergency Order meeting. Have Hermione, Ron and Ginny attend. He's in a great deal of danger, we must find him and bring him back to Grimmauld place where we can protect him."

* * *

Hermione was sitting in the library at Grimmauld place studying when a familiar snowy owl flew in through an open window and dropped a letter on the table in front of her before flying off through the door leading to the hallway. 

She grinned widely as she recognized the messy handwriting of one of the people she cared about the most in the world. Hermione quickly opened the letter, excited about what it might contain.

_Dear Hermione,_

_Thank you so much for the books you got me for my birthday. I've already spent some time looking through them and have found several spells I can't wait to try out, so thanks._

_I wish this letter held only good news but I'm afraid it doesn't. I won't be coming to Grimmauld Place this summer and will not be returning to Hogwarts for my sixth year. I'm sorry Hermione, you are one of the most important people in my life and I hate to think that I won't be able to see you for a long time but I need to do this. Hedwig is the only owl that will be able to find me so if you need to you can send a letter with her._

_Please don't be angry with me I promise I will see you again. Take care of yourself Hermione._

_With love,  
__Harry_

Hermione's smile as she began reading the letter quickly changed to one of sadness and tears formed in her eyes as she finished. After reading the letter several times she wiped the tears from her face and left the library to find Ron and Ginny.

* * *

Ron and Ginny were engaged in a game of chess in the drawing room when Hedwig flew in from the entrance hall and dropped a pair of letters in the middle of their game causing the chess pieces to grumble and swear at the owl. Picking up their letters they quickly tore them open. 

_Ron,_

_Hey mate. Thanks for the quidditch posters I plan on putting them to good use in my new room. Actually that brings me to why I'm writing. I'm sorry but I won't be coming to Grimmauld Place this summer and won't be going back to Hogwarts this year. Sorry mate, you're the best friend a guy could have and I hate to think I won't be able to see you for a long time but I have to do this. If you want to send me a letter Hedwig is the only owl that will be able to find me._

_Take care of yourself and watch over Hermione and Ginny.  
__Harry_

"Bloody Hell." Ron muttered as he finished reading the letter. Hearing sniffles he looked up to see tears streaming down the face of his sister.

_Dearest Ginny,_

_I can't even begin to thank you enough for the wonderful gift you've given me for my birthday. I haven't taken it off since I put it on. I find myself holding it often the warm and familiar feelings reminding me of you. Thank you._

_I've really enjoyed writing to you too this summer. It's meant a lot to me to be able to get to know you better which is why I regret that I won't be able to keep in as good a touch with you from now on. I'm sorry Gin, but I won't be coming to Grimmauld Place for the rest of the summer. I will also not be going to Hogwarts this year. Please don't be mad at me Gin. Of all the people I won't be able to see this year I will miss you the most._

_If you want to write back, Hedwig is the only owl that will be able to find me. If you don't want to its ok, I understand._

_With love,  
__Harry_

Sobs escaped her throat as Ginny finished reading the letter from Harry. Looking up from the piece of parchment she saw Ron looking at her with concern. Unable to bear it she ran from the room with the letter clutched tightly in her hand passing a distraught Hermione on her way out.

"Ron!" Hermione said as she entered the room to see Ginny running the other way.

"I know." he said sullenly.

"Why Ron? Why?" she sobbed.

"I don't know, but when I find him I'm gonna kill him."

It took the pair a while but when they were finally able to calm down enough they both wrote letters to Harry before going to check on Ginny.

* * *

Ginny sat at her desk crying softly. She had received several letters from Dean as well as Harry all summer but it was the ones from Harry that she had eagerly anticipated and looked forward to the most. After all the years of watching him from the sidelines, dreaming they could be something more, he had finally taken an interest in her. She had read each of his letters more times than she could count and it thrilled her to see in his words that they were finally becoming closer. And now, he had left. 

Continuing to wipe the tears from her eyes she wrote him what she hoped wouldn't be their final letter.

_Dear Harry,_

_I hope you are well wherever you are. I wish I could say everyone here is fine but I would be lying. They're not fine, I'm not fine._

_I miss you Harry. The best part of my summer has been writing to you and getting your letters. I loved getting to know you better and couldn't wait for you to come here so I could see you again. There are so many more things I wanted to know about you and wanted to tell you about myself and now you're going away and I won't even get to see you at Hogwarts. I'm sorry Harry, I don't mean to sound like this but I wish you were here._

_I don't know what else to say, I miss you, please take care of yourself and write back._

_All my love,  
__Ginny_

After reading her finished letter through a final time she placed it in an envelope writing 'Harry Potter' on the front. She had just finished when she heard Hedwig tapping on her window and opened it to let her in. Before Ginny could give the owl her letter there was a knocking on her door. Opening it she was greeted by Hermione and Ron.

"Are you ok Ginny?" asked a concerned and upset Hermione.

Ginny sniffed and wiped some more tears from her face. "No." she barely managed to get out.

The older girl pulled her into a hug and they were quickly joined by Ron. After several minutes they finally separated.

"Have you seen Hedwig Gin?" Ron asked. "We wrote Harry some letters."

Ginny pointed to her desk chair where the beautiful snowy owl was perched. "Yes, she's here." She then held up her own letter. "I was just about to give her mine."

Approaching the owl they found she had a single letter she was holding tightly. They could see it was addressed to the Order but she wouldn't let them have it. After tying their letters to her other leg she hooted fondly at them and flew out the window.

* * *

After lunch a full Order meeting was held and three distraught teens could be found sitting at the table across from Albus Dumbledore. As he began the meeting the normal twinkle he wore in his eyes was completely missing. 

"I apologize for asking you all here on such short notice but a situation has come up that must be addressed immediately. Harry Potter is missing."

Gasps and murmuring was heard all around the table at the news. It was several minutes before the chatter died down enough for Dumbledore to continue. "We know he was at Privet Drive yesterday but he has disappeared since then. Earlier today Minerva and I received a letter telling us he would not be attending Hogwarts this year. It is critical that we find him as soon as possible. He is in grave danger and must be brought here where we can protect him."

The murmuring was just starting again when Hedwig flew in the room and dropped a letter in front of the Headmaster. Acting quickly he aimed his wand at the owl and cast a tracking spell on her.

Hedwig felt a spell hit as she was flying out of the window. Instead of returning to Harry she turned around and flew back in the house landing in front of Ginny and holding out her leg on which was attached three letters. After Ginny removed them she flew across the room landing on Hagrid's shoulder where she glared at Dumbledore.

The old man sighed internally as Hedwig landed on Hagrid's shoulder and glared at him. Shaking his head he returned to the matter at hand. She would return to Harry eventually he thought.

Looking at the letters Ginny quickly realized they were not replies but the three letters her, Hermione and Ron had written to Harry that morning.

"Are those letters from Harry?" Dumbledore asked the young witch.

Ginny shook her head. "No, we" she said gesturing towards Hermione and Ron, "wrote these to Harry this morning. Why won't she take them? Harry said she would."

"I'm sorry Ms. Weasley but I had to place a tracking charm on Hedwig and it would appear she's not happy about it."

The three teens tried to protest so that Hedwig would deliver their letters but their arguments fell on deaf ears. Finally waving off all of the children's arguments about Hedwig he opened the letter she had delivered to him and began to read.

_To the Order of the Phoenix,_

_Thank you for watching out for me in the past. I'm sorry that I will not be able to join you all at Grimmauld place for the rest of the summer but rest assured I am safe and no longer require your protection. Please don't waste your valuable resources looking for me. Remus and I have recently inherited the Black Estate and would like you all to know that you are welcome to continue using the house for as long as you need too._

_Sincerely,  
__Harry Potter_

Dumbledore gritted his teeth working hard to suppress the anger he was feeling at the rapidly deteriorating situation and maintain his calm exterior. After reading the letter to the assembled Order members he turned to the three teens in front of him.

"I understand you each received letters from Mr. Potter. Did he mention anything that might help us locate him?" He spoke in a stern tone causing the three to flinch involuntarily.

"No sir, he only said he wouldn't be coming here or to Hogwarts and said he was sorry." Hermione said through her sniffles. Ron and Ginny quickly verified her statement.

He didn't really need to hear her answer. While they were talking he had entered their minds and read the letters for himself.

Snape finally spoke up his voice filled with loathing and disgust for Harry. "I don't think we should waste our valuable time on the brat. If he thinks he's too good for us then let him run off and get himself killed."

The room immediately went wild with shouts of anger directed at the spy. Pulling his wand Dumbledore let out a loud bang getting everyone's attention. "I'm afraid that will not be possible Severus. Harry is important to our cause and we need to find him."

"And just what makes the golden boy of Gryffindor so valuable to our cause?" said a sneering Professor Snape.

Albus smiled internally as the conversation turned in the direction he had intended it too. "I was hoping I would not have to tell you this but it is because of the prophecy."

"You mean the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries?" Amelia Bones asked.

"Yes, the very one."

"But it was destroyed during the fighting and no one was able to hear it over the noise." Hermione said.

Dumbledore sighed. "The prophecy was originally given to me. I placed my memory of it in a pensieve and showed it to Harry after the battle. I'm afraid that may be why he has run away."

"You know what it says? And Harry knows?" Hermione said softly.

"Yes, and I think it's time to share it with the rest of you." Taking a deep breath he continued. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."

After repeating the false prophecy to the Order he gave them several minutes to digest the new information. Looks of horror appeared on various faces and several of the women were crying. Brian Goldman however was looking at his grandfather with a mixture of shock, understanding and a bit of disgust.

"So you see we need to find Harry. He is the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord."

As the meeting ended Dumbledore gave everyone their assignments holding Severus back until everyone had left the kitchen. Casting a security spell on the room he addressed his spy.

"I need you to keep an especially close eye on Voldemort and his inner circle. I need to know immediately if they begin looking for Harry or have any idea where he might be."

"Very well Headmaster." he said and with a swish of his cloak he left the room.

After dropping his security charms he left the kitchen to be confronted by his grandson in the hallway.

"We need to talk." Brian said before leading Albus to a room off the entrance hall.

Once again Dumbledore cast his security charms before speaking. "I assume this is about the prophecy?"

"You're bloody well right it's about the prophecy! What the hell was that garbage you were spouting off in there? How could you do that to Harry or the rest of the Potter's for that matter?" Brian raged.

Dumbledore's face looked like it was made of stone and there was no twinkle in his eyes as he spoke. "That 'garbage' is what has kept you alive all these years. That 'garbage' was prophesized as well. What exactly did you think 'cost of the innocent' meant in your prophecy?"

"It doesn't matter. It's not right. We can't do this to him. Don't you realize that Voldemort will stop at nothing to kill him because of your lies?"

Placing a hand on Brian's shoulder he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We don't have a choice, our path is set. Your destiny was prophesized and this is part of that prophecy being fulfilled. What we do we do for the good of all wizards. Their sacrifice is necessary and their deaths are not in vain. They will help secure our future and that of the wizarding world.

Brian couldn't believe what he was hearing from his grandfather. A man he had always looked up to, a role model he had patterned his life after. His mind began grasping at straws desperately wanting to find a reason for his actions and behavior. He wanted so badly to believe Albus was under the influence of a spell or potion but he knew it was just wishful thinking, this had been going on for far too many years for that to be the case.

"I don't even understand why this was necessary at all, grandfather. The prophecy was made before I was born and you were the only one who knew of its existence. Why did you do this at all? Why did you feel the need to change it when it was already hidden?"

"I'm afraid that was my fault." Dumbledore said closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. After taking a deep breath he continued. "I met with my brother in a room at the Hogshead Pub during Voldemort's first reign. I felt I needed help in figuring out what the prophecy meant. I had just told him the first line when I realized there was someone listening through the door. In a flash it hit me what the part about 'the cost of the innocents' meant and I quickly changed the second line. I stopped after that and said someone was listening and they immediately ran off. With my new understanding of what the prophecy meant I no longer needed Aberforth's help and to keep us all safe I Obliviated him. I then kept an eye out for someone to fulfill the criteria of the prophecy I made up. Two children were born at the end of July who also had parents that fit, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. I protected them both but it was the Potter's the Dark Lord went after. Lily was always a very clever girl. She apparently placed a special and ancient protection spell on Harry when they went in to hiding which protected him from the killing curse. When I found him alive I had no choice but to rewrite the rest of the prophecy to fit him and protect him for what was to come."

Brian was stunned. He couldn't believe the lengths Albus was willing to go to for this. It was now clear to him there was no changing his mind about this and he wasn't sure what could be done about it anyway. He wished he knew where Harry was so that he could talk to him and tell him everything.

"I guess we don't have a choice anymore." Brian said having no other option.

* * *

After leaving Grimmauld Place Severus Snape apperated away reappearing in a graveyard not far from Riddle Manor. He quickly made his way in to the house passing through the dingy corridors and up the stairs until he came to the Dark Lord's study where he knocked on the door. 

"Enter." a voice hissed from the other side.

Entering the study he found Voldemort alone sitting behind his desk. Closing the door behind him he approached the desk and bowed deeply. "My Lord."

Waving his wand Voldemort cast several security spells on the room before speaking. "What news do you bring be Severus?"

"I have just come from a meeting of Dumbledore's Order. It seems the Potter boy and the Werewolf Lupin have gone missing and they have been unable to locate them so far. He also told us of the prophecy concerning the boy."

Voldemort's eyes lit up at the news. "He told you the prophecy?"

"Yes my lord. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies'. Dumbledore also wants me to keep a close eye on you and the inner circle and notify him of anything concerning Potter."

The Dark Lord sat back thinking about this interesting turn of events. "Does he still trust you and believe you are his spy within my ranks?"

"Yes. He has no doubts that I fight for the light." Severus replied with an evil grin.

"Excellent. I want it known to everyone that Potter is not to be touched or looked for. For now let the old man think we do not yet know of Potter's disappearance. In time we will let him think we are looking for the boy as well."

Severus was confused as to why they would not be looking for Potter but let it go. "As you wish my Lord." Bowing once again he left the room.

**

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AN:** Your reviews are awesome! Thank you all! 

I'll bet that last part got your attention! Smirks! My outline keeps changing slightly as I make small changes along the way but is still set to come in at 30 chapters. I really do like Dumbledore as a character in the books and love that Rowling let some of his power out in the last one I just also enjoy twisting his character for this fic. I think I've made him a bit more evil than I had originally intended but oh well, its fun! Harry may not be going to school at Hogwarts but that doesn't mean he won't be going back to Hogwarts. Author grins evilly, you'll have to wait for chapter 12 to know what I'm talking about.

The Owls: Very large grins! Special mention to Shadowed Rains, Fabi and Gandalf Lyonn who caught that I missed Herbology in the owl letter. I actually knew about that when I posted it. Grins. I didn't feel like reinventing the scoring again so I copied that letter out of one of my other stories (chp. 1 of The Potion Masters Gift) and noticed when I was copying it that I had accidentally left that class off. It hit me as funny that no one caught it in the reviews for that story so I left it to see if it would get caught here and got busted! Nice one guys! (Gandalf Lyonn, that's a brilliant idea by the way, unfortunately I'm too lazy to go back and implement it. I'd rather spend the time it would take on a new chapter. Absolutely brilliant though!)

Pairing update for SeleneA: Ha, Ha, Ha…

I think this chapter addressed most of the rest of your comments and questions though several that weren't will be addressed in the next one, of course feel free to owl or email me if there's anything you want to know that I didn't put here. The next chapter may take me just a bit longer to crank out as I will be introducing Kaela Moore and want it to be done right, plus I have some other things going on this weekend and wont be able to mess with it much. As always thanks for all your reviews and keep them coming! You're all doing a great job of keeping me motivated!


	9. A New Home

**Chapter 9 – A New Home**

While Bella was hailing a cab Remus pulled Harry aside and cast a quick spell on each of them.

"Alright Harry, there is no longer a Harry Potter or Remus Lupin as far as the owls are concerned. The only post that will find us is what Hedwig carries or anything addressed to Remus or Harry Black."

Harry grinned at his new godfather and together they climbed in to the back of the cab Bella had managed to summon.

After a long taxi ride Harry, Remus, Bella and an invisible Sirius arrived at Heathrow Airport where Remus had come earlier in the day to get them all tickets to America. They did their best to sleep during the long flight but everyone was too excited. As they arrived in New York night was descending and they checked in to the nearest hotel for the evening.

Waking the next morning they all felt a little rough around the edges no doubt due to the change in time zones but were confident it would pass quickly. After showering for the day they packed and shrunk their belongings before making their way into the wizarding section of the city.

Not far from Central Park on Broadway Remus stopped the small group in front of a small opening between two buildings. It was bigger than an alley and looked as if there was a building missing. Hanging above them and set back slightly within the space was a sign that read 'Wizarding Square'. Harry noticed that the muggles walking by seemed to take no notice of the space or sign and came to the conclusion that it was protected from them much the way the Leaky Cauldron is in London.

Harry followed Remus to the back of the depression with Bella and Sirius close behind. Without stopping Remus walked straight up to the back wall and disappeared. Harry surprise caused him to pause briefly and look at Bella who gave him a small smile and nodded towards the wall where Remus had disappeared. Taking a deep breath Harry moved forward to experience the same sensation he always felt passing through the barrier to platform 93/4 at Kings Cross Station.

"Wow." Harry said as he found himself standing next to Remus on the other side of the wall he had just passed trough taking in the sight of the Wizarding shopping district.

"I agree." Remus replied scanning the area in wonder.

In front of them they found a large grass area that looked to be the size of a large city block. There were paths that twisted their way through the area, playground equipment, benches and a large fountain in the center. A statue of a dragon looking skyward sat in the middle of the fountain with jets of water spraying around it, moving to some unknown rhythm. In intervals a spray of water would issue from the dragons mouth that somehow the creators had managed to make resemble fire. It was breathtaking. All in all it was an amazing and beautiful park. Even this early in the day several children could be seen running around playing with each other, their proud parents looking on.

A wide cobblestone walkway outlined the park and was surrounded by all manner of magical shops which defined and enclosed the area.

The group began walking along the path surrounding the park looking at the various Wizarding stores before finally coming to a stop in front of 'Moore's Magical and Muggle Real Estate'.

Opening the door, Remus gestured for Harry to proceed him in to the shop. As Harry walked in he noticed the ceiling was enchanted similarly to the great hall at Hogwarts and failed to notice a girl rounding a corner with her nose in a book. The two crashed in to each other sending them both to the floor and causing Harry's glasses to fall from his face.

Rubbing his head Harry looked up at the blurry outline of the young woman he had accidentally run in to. "Ginny?" he asked curiously.

"Excuse me?" the young woman responded rubbing her own forehead.

Not recognizing her melodious voice Harry quickly searched the floor around him finding his glasses and replacing them on his face before returning his gaze to the girl sitting on the floor in front of him. He immediately realized it wasn't Ginny but could understand why he had mistaken her for his friend when his glasses were off.

She seemed to be about the same build as Ginny with long slender legs and perfect curves. Her hair was an auburn color that was slightly darker than Ginny's and went to the middle of her back. Her skin was smooth and lightly tanned, she had soft lips and a button nose that lacked the freckles that Ginny wore and her eyes were a soft blue that seemed to entrance him and pull him in. He immediately decided she was very beautiful.

Harry stared at her lost in his thoughts for several long seconds before the sound of Sirius snickering behind him brought him back to reality. As he got up and stepped toward the girl he noticed she was staring at him as well, chewing lightly on her bottom lip which he found very cute.

"Erm, sorry, I guess I was to busy staring at the ceiling to pay attention to where I was going." Harry said offering her a hand up.

Shaking herself out of her own trance she accepted his hand and was pulled to her feet. She flushed slightly as she felt a tingle flow through her at his touch. "That's ok," she replied smiling at him, "It's actually my fault anyway. If I hadn't had my nose stuck in that book I would have seen you."

Harry grinned back at her. "Fair enough, I'm Harry Potter." he said extending his hand.

"Kaela Moore." she replied shaking his offered hand.

He had braced himself for the usual upward flick of the eyes towards his scar at the mention of his name and was heartened when she didn't. "Moore? Is this your family's store?"

"Yes, it's just me and mom. Are you all here to see her?" she asked looking around the group.

"Oh yes, I'm sorry. " Harry began, "This is my godfather Remus Lupin and Bella Black."

Kaela shook both their hands. "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well." Remus replied and Bella smiled.

Turning back to Harry Kaela was about to take them to her moms office when she realized he seemed familiar. "Do I know you from somewhere?" she asked scrunching up her eyes and tilting her head slightly to one side as she stared at him. "You seem familiar for some reason."

Harry groaned internally as he saw her eyes go wide. Great he thought to himself, here we go.

Looking around on the floor she picked up the book she had been reading and quickly flipped through the pages before stopping and looking up in triumph. "I knew it!" she exclaimed happily. "You're the Harry Potter that goes to Hogwarts right?"

With a resigned sigh Harry answered. "Yes, that's me."

She seemed to become even more excited. "How did you manage to become a seeker your first year?" she asked.

"What?" a now thoroughly confused Harry replied. That was not what he had been expecting.

"You were the youngest seeker in over a century at Hogwarts right?"

Harry just nodded still confused as to what she was going on about. Seeing his confusion Kaela rolled her eyes and moved to stand next to him with the book held up so he could see it. The skin on her arm tingled and her breath hitched slightly as she bumped into him.

Looking at the book Harry saw a picture of himself spitting out the snitch after catching it in his mouth. "What book is this?"

Kaela was wearing a large grin. "It's the latest copy of 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. Mom sold a couple properties to the owner of the publishing house a while back and he promised to send me a copy when he found out I like to play. It won't even be released for another month."

Harry was surprised he was in the new edition and was very pleased she hadn't been about to go on about him being the Boy Who Lived. "Wow, I can't believe they put me in here."

Remus cleared his throat behind them bringing their attention back to the present.

"Oh, sorry." Kaela apologized blushing slightly. "Come on, I'll take you to mom." Reaching out without thinking she took hold of Harry's hand and led them down a hallway and into a large office. Harry almost ran into the door frame on the way in as he found himself unable to think about anything other than the beautiful girl holding his hand. He was disappointed when they were all in the office and she let go.

A friendly looking witch about Kaela's height stood up behind the desk as they entered.

"Hello, I'm Brenda Moore. I see you've met my daughter already." she said smiling warmly at the group before her.

"It's nice to meet you Brenda, I'm Remus Lupin. This is Bella Black and Harry Potter."

Her eyes moved through the group as they were introduced finally coming to rest on Harry. Brenda wore a look of surprise on her face as she addressed him. "The Harry Potter?" she asked curiously.

Harry blushed and did not fail to notice the look of confusion and curiosity on Kaela's face. "Yes ma'am."

"I must say it is an honor to meet you Mr. Potter." She said as she extended her hand.

Harry took her hand shaking it lightly. "Please, just call me Harry."

Seeing the look of confusion on her daughters face Brenda faced her. "You do realize who this is, don't you Kaela?"

"Well yeah, he's the youngest seeker ever at Hogwarts."

Brenda rolled her eyes causing Harry to have to hold back a snicker as he realized where Kaela got the habit from.

"I swear, is Quidditch all you ever think about? Maybe if you had paid a little more attention in history and put a small amount of effort into your studies you might have learned a few things. Harry here defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort when he was only one year old."

Kaela was blushing and chewing her lip as she tried to avoid Harry's gaze while her mother discussed her study habits in front of the small group. She looked up in surprise when her mom mentioned what he had done. "Cool." she said turning towards Harry who was looking embarrassed.

"Actually we would appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself about Harry being here today. Part of the reason we've come to the states is to escape his many adoring fans." Remus said shooting a wicked grin towards Harry who was now scowling back at him.

Harry's gaze returned to Kaela as he heard her let out a little snort of laughter at Remus comments.

Covering her mouth Kaela replied quietly trying not to laugh. "Sorry."

"Of course Remus, please, why don't you all have a seat and let me know what I can do for you."

After taking seats around the desk Remus began. "Well we would like a decent sized home with four bedrooms, nothing to huge though. We would also like to have plenty of land around it."

"I want to be able to fly there." Harry added.

They spent a long time flipping through listings for Wizarding properties but nothing seemed to quite fit what they were looking for. Kaela had been looking thoughtful for several minutes before addressing her mom. "What about the Johnson place?"

Brenda thought for a long minute before nodding to her daughter. "That's a good idea." she said before retrieving a portfolio of muggle properties from the credenza behind her desk.

Flipping it open she found the property she was looking for and place it on the desk in front of her.

"This is actually a muggle property that backs up to our own home and land. If you're not averse to owning a muggle home I have a Wizarding construction company who could update it with the normal Wizarding enhancements and add the appropriate wards to the property to keep muggles away and allow you to fly without being seen."

The property looked perfect. The house was just what they had been looking for with four bedrooms, a den, dining room, living room, kitchen, large garage and an unfinished basement. It sat on one hundred and forty acres of land and much to Harry's delight was next to Kaela's home who he had instantly taken a liking too.

"We'll take it." Harry blurted out excitedly.

"Wouldn't you like to see it first?" Brenda asked with a smile that was echoed by Remus and Bella firmly in place.

Harry blushed in embarrassment once again. "Oh, I mean yeah we probably should look at it."

The adults all smiled at Harry. Pressing a button on the phone sitting on her desk Brenda spoke to her receptionist. "Maggie, I'll be out of the office for a little while showing a house."

"Yes madam." came the reply over the speaker.

Reaching into her desk, Brenda removed a red stick that was about a yard long from the impossibly large interior of the drawer. She then pressed one end of the rod to a red seal on the top left corner of the properties listing. There was a small flash of light and Brenda walked around the desk holding the object.

"This is a portkey that will take us to the home and bring us back here when you're finished looking."

Everyone stood preparing to leave when Kaela jumped up. "Can I come?" she asked.

Brenda could see the hope in her daughter's eyes and the reflection of that hope in Harry's though he was doing a much better job hiding it than she was. "If it's ok with Remus, Bella and Harry." she said turning towards her clients.

"Of course." replied Bella as Remus nodded and Harry smiled.

"Alright then, come on, everyone take hold." She said offering up the portkey she held. After everyone was touching it she tapped it with her wand and they all disappeared from the office.

* * *

They reappeared in an empty three car garage. Brenda took them out a side door leading them to the front of the house. "Sorry, I have to portkey destination set to the garage as this is a muggle property and we wouldn't want anyone to see us appear." 

The home was a very nice two story affair finished with a combination of brick and wood siding that had been painted in brown and tan earth tones. Stepping onto the front porch which ran the length of the house Brenda inserted the key in to the front door gaining entrance.

The front door opened into a modestly sized entry area. A doorway to the left at the base of the stairway led to a comfortable study and another on the right side of the entry led into a dining room. Proceeding through the entry past the dining room door and stairway they entered the main part of the home where another hallway ran across the house. Directly across the hallway was a large opening that gave access to the living room. There was a fireplace on the wall to the left as they entered and the wall straight ahead of them was covered with large windows giving a spectacular view of a small lake that sat behind the house. Among the large windows was a glass door that led to a wooden deck that hung off of the back of the house. To the right there was a bar and doorway that opened up to a large and well equipped kitchen.

On the back of the house off the kitchen was an octagonal shaped breakfast nook that was once again surrounded by windows. Opposite the breakfast area on the other end of the kitchen was another door leading from the kitchen to the hallway that crossed the home. Opposite the doorway from the hall to the kitchen was another door to the dining room and on the end of the hall was a door leading to the garage they had appeared in. The opposite end of the hallway led to the master bedroom which had an amazing bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.

Upstairs were three more bedrooms. The one to the left at the top of the stairs had its own modest bathroom while the two to the right shared a bath between them. All of the bedrooms had large walk in closets and ceiling fans. Underneath the stairway leading up was another leading down from the hallway to the unfinished basement which was very large running the full length of the home.

Harry, Remus and Bella all loved the home and even Sirius had whispered to Remus that it seemed perfect.

"We'll take it." Remus said after a very short discussion with Harry and Bella.

"Great!" Brenda said to the group. "It will take a few hours to button up all the paperwork. Kaela, why don't you show Harry around and where we live while the rest of us go back and finish everything up? If that's ok with the rest of you that is?" she said looking around the group.

"Ok." Kaela said with no small amount of enthusiasm. "Harry, grab your broom and we can go for a fly."

"Just remember the new wards won't be in place for a day or two so you can only fly on our property until them." Brenda reminded the teens.

"I know mom."

After enlarging his trunk and retrieving his FireBolt Harry left the house with Kaela while the rest of the group returned to Brenda's office to complete the sale.

* * *

Kaela led Harry around the pond behind his new home to the woods on the other side. As they entered the edge of the trees she stopped and looked at him expectantly. 

"What?" Harry asked.

"Well, aren't we going to fly?"

Harry looked confused. "But your mom said we couldn't fly here until the wards were put up."

Kaela once again rolled her eyes which Harry found amusing. "So?"

"Um, well…"

A smirk appeared on Kaela's face. "Are you chicken?"

Harry was surprised at her comment and the look on her face but was more than ready to accept the challenge and even push back a bit. His eyes narrowed slightly and he put on a mischievous grin of his own as he hopped on his broom and gestured for her to sit in front of him. "No, are you?"

"Of course not." she said climbing on in front of him.

She barely had time to register the feeling of Harry wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her tightly against him before they shot off through the trees at a blistering pace that caused her eyes to open wide and body to stiffen in shock.

Harry grinned to himself as he flew through the trees his seeker reflexes making it easy for him to dodge the obstacles in his way. He felt Kaela stiffen and heard her gasp as he took off and pushed his broom harder.

As they approached the other side of the woods a large oak tree appeared in their path. Harry executed a neat roll to his right side narrowly avoiding the tree as they shot out of the woods like a bullet from a gun. Kaela clutched on to Harry's arm for dear life and screamed as he executed his roll.

Harry landed not far from the woods and Kaela stepped off the broom to find her legs a bit wobbly from the thrilling experience. She was breathing hard, the adrenaline rush from the flight peaking and her face was flushed as she turned towards Harry to find him grinning back at her looking like he would burst in to laughter at any moment.

"What the hell was that!" she exclaimed as she continued to try to catch her breath.

Shrugging his shoulders Harry continued to grin at her as he responded. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

"What do I mean? You could have killed us with that stunt! That's what I mean!"

Harry's sides were beginning to hurt from holding in his laughter. "We were fine. Normally I would have been flying a bit faster but I took it easy since you were on the broom with me."

Her eyes open wide and she looked flabbergasted at his comment. "You took it easy?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders again. He was dangerously close to loosing it now but couldn't help himself. "Yah, well I am the youngest seeker in a century and all that rot, besides I wanted to be safe with you on and all. Anyway what was that scream about? I thought you said you weren't chicken?"

The look on her face pushed him over the edge and he collapsed on the ground in hysterics.

Realizing he had been pushing her buttons Kaela smacked him on the back of the head before sitting next to him and laughing herself.

"That was some brilliant flying Harry. I can see why they put you on the team right away, you're a natural. Could you really go through there faster?"

"Probably, if I was alone, the brooms not quite as responsive with two people on it, we were pushing pretty hard though."

Kaela just shook her head. "Amazing."

The pair talked for a while about anything and everything getting to know each other better. After a while they walked the rest of the way to Kaela's home where they had some sandwiches for lunch before she fetched her broom and they went flying around her property.

* * *

Mid afternoon the adults returned having completed the paperwork. A Wizarding decorator came along with them. After saying their good byes and promising to meet the next day Harry left for his new home with Remus, Bella and the decorator. 

After entering the house the decorator went to each room with them. She carried a large leather binder that contained a large number of shrunken trunks rather than paper or documents. Entering the living room she removed a trunk labeled 'living room' and enlarged it. Opening the trunk they found it was filled with a wide assortment of all types and styles of living room furniture. Very methodically with the decorators help they selected the pieces they wanted slowly filling the room as they enlarged and levitated each piece into position. It took the rest of the day and part of the next but finally the house was filled. Thanks to the many suggestions the witch helping them had made they had a very comfortable home to live in.

Remus was given the master bedroom on the main floor. Harry teased him that it was because he was so old Harry was worried he would have problems with the stairs. After drying off from the bucket of ice cold water he had been dowsed with, Harry shared a laugh with his godfather as Bella looked on shaking her head in amusement at their antics.

Bella took the upstairs bedroom that had its own bath and Harry took one of the bedrooms with the shared bath. The other would be used for a guest room as Sirius didn't have any use for a bedroom.

The Wizarding construction company was able to create the wards they needed while they finished furnishing the house. While they were there, they made plans to have the construction company finish the basement turning it in to a large entertainment area. It would have a large entertainment center surrounded by comfortable couches and chairs, a pool table and video games as well as a small kitchen area and wet bar that would be filled with all manner of muggle drinks and confections as well as a few Wizarding liquors and butter beer.

Kaela turned up after lunch with plans to explore the rest of the property. The Moore's land was nearly as large as theirs which gave Harry and Kaela a very large back yard to explore. He became very excited when she led him out the back door where she had parked the four wheeler she had arrived on.

"Wicked!" Harry exclaimed as he looked at the contraption.

"Come on Harry." she said as she climbed on and started the engine. Seeing his indecisiveness about what he was supposed to do, she nodded to the space behind her. "Chicken?"

Harry chuckled out loud at her jibe and climbed on behind her. As she hit the gas launching them in to motion she heard Harry's sharp intake of breath as he grabbed her around the waist to hold on and smiled to her self.

* * *

Harry and Kaela became the best of friends spending almost everyday in each others company for the rest of the summer. 

Kaela took him to various Wizarding and muggle areas around the United States and Harry helped Kaela become a better flyer. She was already very good and Harry found out she was a chaser on the junior team at school but with his help she had improved a lot.

Harry had been introduced to many of her friends from school and he had told her about all of his including Ginny.

It was almost the end of summer and Harry and Kaela found themselves sitting on the deck behind Harry's home wondering what to do.

Looking towards the lake Kaela had an epiphany. "I can't believe we haven't thought of it yet. Let's go swimming!" she said turning towards Harry who she found didn't seem very enthusiastic about the idea.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Harry took a deep breath looking very embarrassed. "I, well… I mean, I don't know how to swim." he said muttering the last part.

Kaela frowned for a second thinking about the Dursley's whom he had told her all about. "That's ok, I can teach you." she said smiling back at him.

"Really? You wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not. Go change, I'm gonna fly home and I'll meet you by the lake in a few."

Harry nodded and ran off to his room to change while Kaela flew home. They'd taken to flying brooms back and forth between their houses because it was fast not to mention they loved to fly.

After changing into a pair of trunks Harry grabbed a towel and headed down to the lake. A few minutes later Kaela flew back landing neatly beside him. He watched as she slipped off her jean shorts and t-shirt revealing the simple light blue two piece bathing suit she was wearing that left very little to the imagination. His breath hitched in his chest and his heart was thumping wildly as he took in the sight of her. As his gaze reached her face he noticed she was watching him looking a little nervous as she chewed on her bottom lip.

"Is something wrong Harry?" she asked softly her voice sounding a bit nervous.

Harry had to swallow heavily before he was able to speak. "No. You're beautiful." he barely managed to whisper.

Her face seemed to light up and feeling bold at his words she stepped forward and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Harry."

Turning around she headed for the waters edge. After a few moments Harry regained enough motor control to follow her.

It didn't take her long to teach him how to swim and soon they were having a wonderful time laughing and splashing each other. Kaela disappeared under the water and Harry looked around wondering where she would reappear when he heard the water move behind him. Spinning around he found her sneaking up on him and grabbed her causing her to squeal loudly.

They both became quiet as they realized how close they were with Harry's arms wrapped around her. As the moment took hold they both leaned forward slowly decreasing the space in between them until their lips touched. Kaela's arms slid up around Harry's neck as they kissed for a long minute before pulling back looking into each others eyes.

Reaching up to tuck a stray strand of Kaela's auburn hair behind her ear Harry paused as an image of Ginny popped unbidden into his mind.

Kaela could see the confusion in his expression as he stared at the lock of her hair he was holding and knew what had happened.

"Kaela," Harry began but was cut off by Kaela placing the tips of her fingers on his mouth.

"It's ok Harry, I know."

"I'm sorry, I'm just confused."

"I know. I won't say I don't want this because I do, but I don't want you to have any regrets about us either." she said as she felt a small piece of her heart breaking. She felt a little better as he pulled her in holding her tightly.

**

* * *

-

* * *

AN:** Hey all, sorry about the long wait for this. I don't have writers block or anything like that it's just that real life takes priority over fan fiction sometimes. Oh well, at least it's finally here. Thanks for all the great reviews; I was thrilled to top 200. Yea! 

Neville and Luna will be in the next chapter and Harry will eventually meet Brian. Some of the Orders feelings concerning what's going on will be learned in chp. 12. Harry's friends were very upset about the tracking spell but their protests were waved of by Dumbly. They will not try to get around the spell as she's with Hagrid now.

SeleneA's Pairing Update! – Muha, ha, ha, ha…choke, caugh, gasp, … don't ever let me laugh like that again…

lmill123 – good stuff, some doesn't fit with where I'm going, some does, some could but probably wont.

Lady FoxFire – Well put, Actually he is turning out a bit more evil than I had intended, grins.

mrsean – Very well thought out and accurate! Yes, for the most part it's all true and planned that way.

Jeremy – 30, yea right, what goes around comes around

Thanks so much for continuing to review! I really appreciate it and will try to get my next update out quicker than this one but no promises. Let me know what you think of Kaela Moore and a possible Harry/Kaela pairing. Thanks for reading!


	10. Hogwarts

**Chapter 10 – Hogwarts**

Life at Grimmauld place was less than exciting for the teens residing there. Members of the Order could occasionally be seen passing through but for the most part were too busy looking for the missing boy and werewolf to spend much time at the ancient and noble house of Black. The cleaning of the house had been completed early in the summer and with only a few chores to do, the teens were left mainly to their own devices to pass the time.

Ron spent most of his time trying to convince Hermione or Ginny to play chess with him or reading about the Chudley Cannons latest defeat. Hermione, unsurprisingly, spent most of her time in the library reading up on various subjects that interested her or unsuccessfully looking for counters to the tracking spell Dumbledore had placed on Hedwig. It was mostly busy work to keep her mind off her missing friend as she knew she was too scared of a Ministry reprimand to cast the counter curse even if she found it.

Ginny took the disappearance the hardest, feeling as if her dreams which had been so close to coming true had slipped away from her. She continued to write her other friends and the letters helped her pass the time but her thoughts always seemed to find their way back to the emerald eyed boy she'd had a crush on for as long as she could remember.

It was a long month at Grimmauld place without Harry there, but by the time September first rolled around they were all resigned to the fact that they would not be seeing him for a long time. The entrance hall was bustling with activity as the occupants prepared to leave for school.

"Ronald Weasley!" Molly yelled up the stairs, "Get down here this instant or you'll be staying here with me this year!"

With wide eyes and a slightly pale complexion at the thought of having to spend the school year at home with his mum, Ron quickly made his way down the stairs with his trunk thumping along behind him.

Molly sighed in exasperation as Ron appeared at the bottom of the stairs and shaking her head let out an exasperated harrumph. "I swear, how you can wait until the last minute to do everything I'll never understand." As she continued to rant at her youngest son she opened his trunk and cast a spell to fold and neatly pack the clothes that had been sticking out from the sides.

Their packing complete, the adults in the room shrank the teen's trunks so they'd be easier to carry and the group set off for a tube station a few blocks down. As they passed through the turnstiles to board the under ground Molly wore a slight grin. She was sorry her husband had to work today, he would have loved to experience the muggle transportation, but she was also glad he wasn't there to slow them down with his many questions and interactions with any muggles who happened by the group.

They made it too the station with fifteen minutes to spare and quickly slipped through the barrier at platform 9 ¾. Once on the other side the adults enlarged the trunks and the group said their goodbyes.

As they approached the Hogwarts Express, Hermione, Ron and Ginny noticed there were many people looking at them and it didn't take them long to realize they were all looking for their missing friend, Harry Potter.

Shaking off their inquiring looks, the group quickly made their way on to the train and began searching for an empty compartment. Near the end of the train they finally found one containing Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood.

"Hi Neville! Hi Luna!" Ginny said as she led the group into the carriage.

"Hi Ginny!" Neville replied followed shortly by the odd Ravenclaw they had befriended.

The rest of the group exchanged greetings and stowed their trunks before taking their seats.

"Where's Harry?" Neville finally asked. He was surprised to see the sadness that appeared on their faces.

After a moment Hermione responded. "He left this summer, he isn't going to Hogwarts this year."

Neville was visibly shocked by the news but Luna seemed completely unsurprised by the revelation as she continued to read her upside down edition of the Quibbler.

"It's probably the Frobnarles. I knew his hair was infested with them, it's the only explanation for why it stays messy the way it does. He's probably gone to see a Witch Doctor in Larnabubu to have them exercised."

Hermione look somewhat scandalized by the young Ravenclaw's theories while the rest of the compartments occupants were grinning and trying their best not to laugh.

A moment later the trains whistle sounded and it lurched into motion. Getting up from her seat, Hermione gestured to Ron. "Come on Ron, it's time to go to the prefects car to meet with the other prefects and Head Boy and Girl."

Ron groaned as he got up from his seat and reluctantly followed Hermione out of the car.

"See you later guys." he said as he left.

"We'll save your seats and grab you some food from the cart when it comes by." Neville replied getting a grin from Ron at the thought of the food cart.

As the door closed behind the pair of prefects, Neville turned to Ginny. "So what exactly happened with Harry this summer?"

Ginny sighed and began her story noticing that Luna had closed her Quibbler and was listening intently to the story she was telling. She had just finished up when the door to their compartment slid open to reveal a nervous looking Dean Thomas standing in the doorway.

"Hi Dean." Ginny greeted the boy she had exchanged several letters with over the summer.

"Hey Ginny." he replied before turning to the other occupants of the carriage. "Hey Nev, Hey Luna."

Neville returned the greeting and Luna replied with a smile before Dean returned his attention to Ginny.

"Umm, I was wondering if we could talk for a minute? Alone?" he said nervously.

Ginny smiled and got up from her seat. "Sure Dean."

With a quick wave to her friends, Ginny left the compartment and followed Dean to an empty one further up the train. He gestured her in before him and closed the door as he entered the compartment. Turning to find a smiling Ginny sitting on one of the benches he nervously took a seat next to her.

"What's up Dean?" Ginny finally asked.

Dean was ringing his hands and having a hard time looking at the beautiful redhead sitting next to him. "I, well, I mean I really enjoyed writing to you this summer."

"I did too. It was nice to keep in touch this summer."

Dean seemed to gain a small amount of courage from her replies. "It's good to see you again, you look amazing."

Ginny blushed slightly at his comment.

"I was hoping maybe you would go to Hogsmeade with me sometime?"

Ginny felt a small flutter in her chest at the question, she really did like Dean a lot and thought he was pretty cute.

"I'd like that." she said smiling.

After letting out a deep breath he had been holding, Dean reached out and took her hand in his before taking another deep breath. "I was also hoping that you might want to be my girlfriend?"

Ginny's breath hitched in her chest. She felt another small flutter in her chest but also saw an image of Harry drift across her mind. Her thought's seemed to be a mess, she really liked Dean but it was Harry she loved. But Harry had left and she wouldn't be able to see him for who knows how long. Finally she decided she needed to move on.

Still a bit unsure, she looked into Dean's eyes and nodded.

A large grin lit up Dean's face as he saw Ginny's nod and he slowly leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

Pulling back after the short kiss, Ginny wasn't sure quite what to think. The kiss had been nice, but that was about it. There was no overwhelming passion or lightning and the world definitely had not moved. It was just nice.

As she looked back at Dean she could see the dreamy look on his face and began to feel terrible that within a minute of agreeing to be his girlfriend, she already knew he wasn't the one.

Standing up from her seat she held out her hand. "Come on Dean," she said with a smile, "let's go back to the others."

A grinning Dean took her hand and led her out of the small compartment. As they walked down the train, Ginny thought about the quick kiss they had just shared and how she thought it was just 'nice'. It occurred to her that Harry had described his first kiss with Cho Chang as 'wet' and her description of her first kiss with Dean was not all that far off from that, only lacking the tears. A bit further down the train Ginny stopped and Dean turned to look at her. "I need to stop by the loo. I'll meet you back with the others."

Dean nodded and leaned in to give her another quick peck before turning and heading down the train. Entering the loo, Ginny locked the door and cast a quick silencing charm before sitting on the counter with her legs tucked up against her and her arms wrapped around them as she started to cry.

Thoughts of Harry raced through her mind as the tears continued to stream down her face. She quickly realized she didn't really want to date anyone right now but she really did like Dean and didn't want to hurt him. She also realized that Harry was gone and even when she did see him again, there was no guarantee he wanted the same thing she wanted. Who's to say he wouldn't meet someone else wherever he was and move on anyway?

Finally coming to a decision, Ginny wiped the tears from her eyes and cast a quick spell to remove the redness and puffiness from her eyes before canceling her silencing spell and heading back to the compartment she was sharing with her friends, and her boyfriend. She would stay with Dean.

Opening the door to the compartment, Ginny put on her brightest smile and walked in.

Dean looked up with a large smile on his face as she entered and after closing the door behind her she took a seat next to him, giving his hand a small squeeze as he took hold of hers when she sat down.

Ron and Hermione had returned while she was gone and Ron was now glaring at Dean.

"What the bloody hell is this about?" Ron finally ground out looking at the pair.

Dean once again began looking very nervous, even more so that he had when he had been asking Ginny out. "I, well, I mean, well, umm, Ginny and I are dating now." he ended softly, barely able to maintain Ron's gaze.

He seemed to shrink as Ron began turning red and looked to be about to start in on his roommate.

"That's enough!" Ginny finally roared standing up but not letting go of Dean's hand as she began laying into her brother. "It's none of your bloody business who I date so sod off Ronald Weasley!"

"The bloody hell it isn't!" he yelled back standing to face his sister. Though he didn't show it he paled inside at the cold calculating look that appeared on her face as she took in his comment.

"Fine." she replied laughing to herself at the look of shock that appeared on his face. After giving him a few seconds to fully absorb her comment she continued. "That's absolutely perfect. If you feel it's your right to get in the middle of all my relationships, then I think it's only fair that I be allowed in the middle of yours."

Ginny completely ignored the look of horror that crossed his face as she turned towards Hermione. "My stupid git of a brother has been in love with you since before your fourth year. It's all I ever hear out of him when you're not around. 'Oh Ginny, do you think she could ever love me back?' 'Oh Ginny, she's so beautiful, I love her so much.'. You have no idea how sick I am of hearing him go on and on about how beautiful and wonderful you are and how much he loves you."

Hermione's eyes were open wide and her mouth was hanging open in shock at Ginny's revelations. Looking very smug, Ginny turned back to her brother who was the brightest shade of red that she's ever seen, his look a mixture of anger and embarrassment. A moment later he fled the compartment slamming the door loudly behind him.

Taking a deep breath, Ginny let out a long sigh. She released Dean's hand as she sat down, crossing her arms as she did. Staring at the floor thinking about what she had just done, she couldn't help but think that maybe she had gone a bit too far. Looking up she found Hermione hadn't budged an inch and was still staring at her with the same look of astonishment on her face.

"Sorry Hermione." Ginny mumbled.

Hermione seemed to snap out of her daze at Ginny's apology and blushed slightly as she noticed everyone in the compartment looking at her.

Luna looked up from her Quibble with a dreamy look on her face. "You know, often the cause…" she trailed off deciding it might be best to let this one go as she saw the glare she was receiving from Hermione.

The uncomfortable silence stretched out for a few minutes before the door to the compartment was thrown open and Draco Malfoy stepped in with his two goons close behind.

"Well, well, if it isn't Potter's little fan club." Malfoy said in a pompous drawl. "I hear the Golden Boy of Gryffindor finally showed his true colors and ran away like the coward I always knew he was."

Everyone in the compartment was fuming except Dean who seemed to be a bit out of his element and even somewhat scared about what was going on.

"Sod of Malfoy, you don't have a clue what you're talking about." Ginny growled out in Harry's defense.

"Ah the Weaslet." he said looking her up and down. She could actually feel her skin crawl as his eyes raked up and down her body. "Still pining after Potter eh? Why don't you forget about that looser and come with me? I'm sure we can find something entertaining to do for the rest of the train ride."

That was it, Ginny was already in a bad mood and this slimy arrogant git had just pushed her over the edge. Skipping anymore pleasantries she pulled her wand and launched her famous bat bogey hex straight at Malfoy's face. Without a chance to dodge or fight back, Malfoy ran from the compartment with bogey's chasing him and attacking his head the whole way.

Crabb and Goyle started to advance on Ginny but quickly shied away and followed behind their leader as they realized Hermione and Luna had their wands trained on them while wearing cold looks of fury on their faces.

Slamming the door closed behind them Ginny returned to her seat. She shook of Dean's hand as he tried to take hold of hers. "Thanks a lot for the help Dean, and for standing up to Malfoy for me." she said crossing her arms with a frown on her face. Dean didn't say anything but had the courteousness to look abashed.

Wonderful, Ginny thought, this relationships off to a great start.

Eventually the train neared Hogsmeade and the students all changed into their Hogwarts robes. As the train pulled to a stop the group stepped off and onto the platform where they could hear the familiar and comforting voice of the friendly half giant booming above the crowd of students.

"Firs years oer here. Firs years this way!"

They waved to Hagrid and after receiving a wave and loud greeting in response headed towards the carriages for the trip to the castle.

The ride was quiet as the occupants of the carriage contemplated a year at Hogwarts without Harry. As the castle came into view the twinkling lights held little of their normal warmth and the excitement of the coming year was duller than normal.

The carriages finally pulled to a stop next to the front doors of the castle and the teens all stepped out. Sighing in resignation Ginny stepped up next to Dean and took his hand, giving him a smile and receiving one in return as they made their way up the stairs to the front doors of Hogwarts.

Luna separated from the group with a small wave as they entered the great hall and made their ways to their respective houses tables. Ron had rejoined the group in the carriages and sat with them at the tables but he would not speak and he and Hermione pointedly refused to look at each other. Not long after sitting down the hall became quite and the sorting ceremony proceeded. Once the new students had all been sorted into their new houses, Headmaster Dumbledore stood to address the returning students.

"Welcome everyone to another year at Hogwarts. I can see you are all hungry so without further ado, let the feast begin!"

With a clap of his hands the tables filled with all manner of delicious looking dishes and the students happily dug in.

The feast passed slowly as Hermione, Ron and Ginny had to repeatedly put off the many Griffindors and well wishers from the DA who wanted to know where Harry was. Eventually, however, the feast was finished and the tables cleared as the Headmaster stood.

"Now that we've all been fed and watered I have a few announcements to make. First, Mr. Filches list of items which are banned from the castle has grown to include all of the items created by the infamous Weasley twins."

Many snickers and grins could be seen at this announcement. Ginny smiled and made a mental note to write the twins later to let them know. They'd be thrilled!

"Also as usual, the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all who do not wish an early and no doubt painful death."

Once again several students could be seen grinning or acting innocent at the announcement.

"Classes start tomorrow so I suggest you all try to get a good nights sleep instead of staying up all night chatting. Prefects, please lead the first years to the dormitories."

With the announcements complete the students all rose and headed up to their dormitories. As Hermione, Ron and Ginny entered the common room they were confronted by a large group of curious Gryffindors.

They spent the next hour or so giving explanations until finally most of Gryffindor had headed off to bed. Walking towards the stairs, Ginny gave Dean a quick kiss before heading up to her dorm room. After filling in the girls with the details of her and Dean's relationship she was finally able to change and climb in to bed.

She cast a quick silencing charm around her bed followed by the lumos charm. In the dim light given off by her wand, Ginny stared at a small picture of Harry she had been carrying with her ever since he had gone missing. Tears slid down her cheeks as she cried for her lost friend and what could have been.

* * *

-

* * *

**AN:** Hey everyone, I'm back! Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but as you may have picked up from some of my other few and far between Author's Notes, I've been pretty busy with the new job and all lately. Not to worry though, I find myself with a fair amount of spare time again and should be able to crank a few updates out. Sorry this chapters a bit shorter than the others but the story is in a bit of a transitional point. Thing will be picking up again soon. 

I'm thrilled to see that Kaela has been so well accepted. I really like the way her character has come out. It'll be interesting to see how she develops in future chapters! I love all the hub-bub I've managed to create over the pairing and fully intend to continue to twist the knife for quite a while!

MintChocolate5 – You were wondering if you were going to hear anymore of Ginny, was that anything like what you were expecting? Grins!

Shavaineth – Nice catch on Bella's hair. I'd like to say that she was in disguise…yeah, that's it, it was a disguise… but the truth is I screwed up. Oh well, nice one!

GlueStik – You're right, I should have put something in about Harry and the crew noticing Hedwig had not returned. I firmly believe that they would know exactly why she didn't though.

Shinigami – You'll just have to wait and see… smirks…

Dragonmaster – Thanks so much for you wonderful review! You bring up many fascinating points and seem to be thinking a lot deeper than I am. Thanks. Just so you know, I will not be killing Kaela or her mom off.

As always, thank you all so much for all of your reviews and support. As I mentioned before, I do find myself with more time again so am happily back to writing. I'll do my best to get the next chapter out much quicker than this one! Thanks for reviewing!


	11. Salem

**Chapter 11 – Salem**

A pair of candles cast a soft, romantic glow across a small table where a pair of teenagers sat. Kaela found herself mesmerized as she stared across the table into brilliant green eyes that stared back filled with a love and passion that was only for her.

Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as Harry reached across the table taking her hands into his. Butterflies filled her stomach and her breathing became shallow as he lifted her hands to his lips and began slowly kissing his way across her knuckles filling the space between kisses with the words she longed to hear.

"I" he began as started kissing her right hand.

"Love" he continued in a passion filled voice as he moved to her left.

"You" he finished before trailing his kisses the rest of the way across her left hand.

She could barely contain the feelings welling up within her when he lifted his head to meet her gaze. A thrill previously unknown swept over her as he began leaning closer and his lips parted.

"Kaela"

Ever so slowly they continued to move forward getting closer and closer.

"Kaela!"

Her feelings changed to confusion as she began looking around the room.

"Kaela Brianna Moore! Get up right now!"

A groan escaped the girl's mouth as she was yanked back to the real world from the wonderful dream she had been enjoying. "I'm up, I'm up."

"Well get a move on young lady, your off to school today and from what I can see you haven't even begun to pack yet." Brenda said sternly as she surveyed the mess that was her daughter's room.

"What? That's not true, I've started." Kaela replied sitting up in her bed.

Brenda crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the teen.

"Alright, so I've only gotten my trunk out so far." Kaela sighed as her mother didn't say anything but continued to stare at her. "Don't worry, it won't take me long."

Brenda rolled her eyes but couldn't help but give her daughter a smile as she turned to leave the room.

After her mom left, Kaela fell back onto her bed. She took in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, grinning widely as her dream replayed in her mind. She'd been having dreams about Harry since not long after they met, but the images and feelings behind them had become much more intense since they had shared a kiss while swimming a few days earlier.

As she finished reliving her dream she let out a long sigh. She knew she had fallen for Harry and wanted more than anything to be together with him as a couple, but couldn't stand the thought that it might be for the wrong reasons. That any relationship they had might be based on physical similarities she shared with a girl he had left behind.

Letting out a growl of frustration, she threw off her covers and grabbed a change of clothes before heading into her bathroom to get ready for the day ahead.

* * *

Harry woke and instantly sat up coughing and sputtering to the combined laughter of both of his godfathers. As realization set in, Harry crossed his sopping wet arms and glared at the pair of Marauders standing at the food of his bed. 

"Time to get up kiddo." Sirius said with a grin.

Remus chuckled at the look Harry was giving them. "He's right, you leave for Salem today and you still need to pack." Crossing his arms Remus tapped his chin with one finger looking thoughtful. "Of course if you still wanted to get a bit more sleep, I suppose Sirius and I could pack for you."

"Merlin no!" Harry blurted out much to the amusement of Sirius and Remus.

Before they could pick on Harry further, Bella entered the room. "Leave the poor boy alone you two."

"Awe, come on Bella, we're only getting started." Sirus said.

Bella saw Harry's eyes going wide at the thought of what else they had in mind and sent him a wink as she drew her wand. "Of course, I am sworn to protect Harry." she said vaguely as she examined the magical focus she was holding.

"Well, you know, now that I think about it, I should probably be getting breakfast ready." Remus said as he began working his way past her towards the door to Harry's room.

"Easy Trixi." Sirius began but quickly sank through the floor as Bella leveled her wand at him for the use of her childhood nickname.

Harry was laughing heartily at their antics. He hadn't failed to notice the smiles on all of their faces as they joked around.

Bella smiled at Harry and waved her wand at him drying up the ice water that had been poured over him.

"Thanks Bella." Harry said with a smile.

"You're welcome Harry. See you downstairs." she replied with a wave as she left the room, closing the door behind her. She sighed as she walked down the stairs wishing she was a little bit younger and a lot more innocent.

Harry fell back onto his bed as the door closed and shut his eyes as he began to go over the dream he had been having. He remembered something about walking through a park hand in hand with a beautiful girl, stopping occasionally to share a kiss. Unfortunately the only thing he could remember about her was that she had red hair.

Deciding he didn't want to risk another visit from his godfathers, Harry finally got out of bed and began getting ready for the day.

* * *

After breakfast Harry managed to get his trunk packed and was ready to go by the time lunch rolled around. Remus had taken Harry and enrolled him in Salem Academy of Magic a week earlier, and Kaela had gone with Harry to the wizarding district in New York to get their school supplies. 

With lunch finished Harry took his trunk into the garage which they had setup as their apparition and portkey point with the adults following close behind.

"Be careful and take care of yourself Harry." Remus said as he gave Harry a hug before stepping back.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Harry said, though he was a bit nervous about attending a new school.

"Yeah Remus he'll be fine. After all," Sirus said as a mischievous grin appeared on his face, "Kaela will be there to take care of him."

The group couldn't help but laugh at the combination blush and scowl that appeared on Harry's face at the comment. A minute later the scowl left his face and Harry found himself laughing along with the rest of them.

Raising a hand, Harry slapped Sirius extended hand with his own, feeling the familiar cold wash through his fingers.

"Don't forget to write Harry." Sirius said with a fatherly smile on his face.

Harry nodded and turned to Bella who pulled him in for a quick hug. "Don't forget your ring. I'm only two taps away if you need me." she whispered before stepping back and rubbing what looked suspiciously like a tear from her eye.

Smiling at his family, Harry took hold of his trunk with one hand and his new student ID card in his other. "Take me to Salem." he said causing the portkey that was built into the ID to activate. There was a tug behind his naval, and Harry Potter disappeared from the garage.

Sirius, Remus and Bella stared at the spot where Harry had been for a long minute before quietly making their way back into the house.

* * *

Harry appeared in the middle of a large room that was setup as the arrival point for the incoming students. As he started to look around he was approached by one of the older students who was carrying a clipboard with numerous papers attached. 

"Hi, I'm Jen. Can I see your ID please?" Wow, she thought, he's cute.

"Sure." Harry said handing his student ID card which he was still holding to the young lady.

After comparing him to the picture on the card she read his name and passed the ID back to him. She then began flipping through the stack of papers on her clipboard.

"Let's see… Potter… Potter… Ahh, here it is, Harry Potter."

Finding his name on her lists, she tapped the entry with her wand causing a card to appear which she handed to Harry.

"This is your class schedule along with your dorm assignment. Do you have any questions?"

"Umm, one, where do I go now?"

"Sorry, I didn't realize your were new." Jen said smiling and looking contrite. Pointing towards some open doors at one end of the hall she continued, "Just go through those doors. The dorms are in the red brick building on the other side of the square. You'll find an orientation manual on your bed when get to your room, it should explain everything you need to know. Anything else?"

"Not right now, thanks for the help."

"No problem, if you need anything at all I'm glad to help." she said giving Harry a warm smile. "There's a bonfire at the quidditch pitch tonight, I hope to see you there!"

Harry nodded and with a wave of his wand levitated his trunk and left the room. As he walked out into the afternoon sun he was attacked by his red haired best friend.

"Harry!"

"Hey Kaela!" he said returning her hug.

"I thought I'd wait for you and show you around."

"Thanks, I was kind of hoping I'd find you. Are you going to the bonfire tonight?"

"Of course! You?" she asked and began chewing her bottom lip as she looked up at him.

"Definitely, you want to go together? I doubt I could find it on my own." Harry said grinning widely.

"Sure." Kaela felt the butterflies come to life in her stomach as Harry asked her to go to the bonfire and smiled at her. Doing her best to shake off the feeling, she grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the dorms. "Come on, let's go find your room and see who your roommate is."

Harry seemed to have a permanent smile etched upon his face as Kaela took his hand and led him across the school grounds. Entering the dorms, the pair found themselves in a large common area with couches and tables scattered about. Kaela began pointing out various areas to Harry as she led him through the ground floor of the building.

"This is the commons, it's just a place to meet and relax. You could try to do homework here, but I wouldn't recommend it. It can get pretty rowdy down here sometimes. Through there is the dinning area." she said indicating some doors at one end of the room. "There's not really a set meal time, just go eat whenever you want."

Leading Harry towards the side of the common area opposite the kitchen she continued her tour by pointing out a long desk with several people behind it performing various tasks. "They're the dorm admins." she said waving at one of them. "They can help with any problems you have around here or at least point you in the right direction."

Harry nodded and continued to smile as she showed him around. As they passed the desk, Kaela led him to an area where there were two rows of circles on the floor. The circles were about four feet across and there were a total of ten, five red and five green. Occasionally someone would appear on one of the red circles before leaving the area and a few people stepped onto the green ones and disappeared. Seeing Harry's confused look, Kaela decided to explain.

"These are kind of like muggle elevators. The red ones are for people coming down, the green ones are for going up. Did you get your card?"

Harry nodded and handed her the card Jen had given him when he had arrived. After taking a quick look, Kaela let out a small squeal before blushing in embarrassment. "Sorry," she said, "it's just that we're on the same floor."

She was heartened by the large smile that registered on his face at her announcement and once again grabbed his hand pulling him onto one of the green circles. "Come on." Once they were both on the circle along with Harry's trunk Kaela spoke. "Seven!"

There was a brief feeling of unimaginable speed before Harry found himself standing on a red circle on one side of a small common area. "Wow, that's cool!"

Kaela grinned. "It is, isn't it. The staff can actually use them to move around campus but we have to walk." Pulling Harry along with her she continued her tour. "Each floor has a smaller common area like this one." Passing through the area she led him to a hallway that ran the length of the building. The common room was situated in the middle of it. "The dorms are coed, girls live on that side" she said pointing down one side of the hallway, "and the boys live on the other."

Turning towards the boy's side, she led him down the hallway. "Every two rooms share a bathroom that's between them. The Rooms are pretty small, but if you can get the charms teacher to sign you off on spatial expansion spells you can make it bigger." She came to a stop in front of a door with the number 717 on it. Taking a deep breath, Harry opened the door and walked in the room with Kaela following close behind.

The room was small, just as she had said it would be. There was just barely enough room for the two beds, desks and wardrobes that filled the space. On one wall he noticed another door which he assumed led to the bathroom Kaela had mentioned.

"Hello." A young man said getting up from one of the beds where he had been reading a book.

"Jack," Kaela said, "This is Harry Potter, your new roommate. Harry, this is Jack Freeman."

Extending his hand, Jack greeted Harry warmly. "Hey Harry, nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Harry replied returning the gesture.

"You a friend of Kaela's or is she just showing you around?"

"We're friends, I moved into the place next to hers this summer." Harry replied giving Kaela a small smile and earning a blush and a grin in return.

"Harry's a seeker like you Jack." Kaela said as she got her blushing back under control and decided to move the conversation to a safer area.

"No kidding? I play on the varsity team myself. Are you going to try out for the team?"

"Yeah I was planning on it. I love to play but got banned at my last school."

"Where did you go to school before? And how did you get banned? I've never heard of that happening before." Jack said curiously.

"Hogwarts, the ban was for fighting, but it wasn't really for that, it was given to me and a couple of my friends by a teacher that hated me. The guy that started it didn't get in any trouble at all."

"Damn, that sucks man. Hogwarts though, that's supposed to be the best magic school there is. How'd you end up here?"

Harry let out a sigh. "Long story, the short of it is that I needed a change."

Jack nodded in understanding and looked thoughtful for a minute before speaking again. "Hey, are you the Harry Potter I heard about in History?"

Harry grimaced internally and nodded.

"Cool man, sorry about your parents."

"That's alright, it was a long time ago." Harry replied. He was happy to feel Kaela place a comforting hand on the small of his back in support. He was also glad that not very many people knew who he was and the ones that had recognized him didn't make a big deal out of it or stare at his scar. It was a nice change, and one he found he really liked.

"Well, I'll leave you to move in Harry." Kaela said. "Swing by my room when you're done and I'll show you around the campus."

"Alright, thanks Kaela." Harry said with a smile.

* * *

After Harry finished unpacking, he found Kaela and continued his tour of the campus. The school was built on a hill that had a large flat area on top where there was a large courtyard filled with paths and benches and a few large trees that were scattered about. The area was surrounded haphazardly by several buildings with several more scattered on the sides and around the hill. Towards the base of the hill on its north side sat a small lake and Harry's favorite thing, the quidditch pitch. 

The pitch had been sunken into the ground and had stadium style seating all the way around. Situated every 15 yards along each side of the bowl were towers with more seating on top. It was a beautiful sight as far as Harry was concerned and he couldn't wait to fly in it.

Kaela pointed out a large pile of wood in the center. "That's for the bonfire later."

Harry smiled warmly at her. "Should be fun."

Nodding and smiling back, Kaela couldn't help but feel the butterflies once again. "Let's go eat. The bonfire won't start for a few more hours."

* * *

A while later Harry found himself walking next to Kaela towards the quidditch pitch. As they approached the stadium and took in the sight, Harry began to get noticeably excited. 

Kaela grinned as she saw the expression on Harry's face as he saw the stadium below them. She often thought of what he had told her about his childhood and the Dursleys and loved that she could see him like this. Turning her attention back to what was currently holding Harry's attention she continued to grin.

A large fire that was at least ten feet across at its base burned brightly in the center of the pitch. Off to one side, well away from the flames, a small stage had been built. A podium sat at the front and a row of chairs along the back side. Several of Salem's professors were sitting in the seats talking happily as they watched the festivities occurring around them.

Scattered around the pitch and crowded around the large fire were hundreds of students. Their conversations and laughing created a dull roar that echoed through the stadium and there was a palpable feeling of excitement.

"Wicked!" a very excited Harry said. "I had no idea this many people went to school here."

Kaela returned his smile once again feeling the all too familiar butterflies she seemed to find in her stomach more and more often when she was around him. "Well, this is a magical college as well. A lot of these people are here for post graduate studies."

Harry nodded in understanding as Kaela led him through the crowd of people greeting various friends along the way. He knew a few of them from the time he'd spent with Kaela over the summer but for the most part was meeting everyone for the first time.

As they neared the fire they heard a voice rang out over the talking and laughter calling for everyone's attention. Looking towards the stage, Harry found the schools Chancellor standing at the podium. Slowly the talking and laughter faded until there was only the sound of the fire crackling away.

"Greetings everyone! It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you back to Salem."

The students cheers echoed through the stadium and the Chancellor smiled waiting patiently for the clapping to subside before continuing.

"I recognize a great many of you from previous years and also see many new faces in the crowd and want each and every one of you to know how happy I am to have you all here studying with us. I could go on and on about how excited I am about the coming term but I'm sure what you really want is for me to give up the podium to a much more popular figure here at Salem, our quidditch instructor Coach Strickland."

Laughter passed through the students at the Chancellor's comments.

Smiling brightly the old witch continued. "Without further ado, I give you the coach of our championship quidditch team, Coach Strickland."

Stepping back from the podium she joined the students in their applause as the coach stepped forward grinning and waving his hands.

"Thank you Chancellor Hellermann, students. Once again I find myself in the enviable position of being able to coach some of the finest individuals in the magical world."

Cheers erupted from around the pitch and the Coach smiled until they began to die down, continuing before the cheers had completely stopped.

"And I find myself lucky enough to be working with our own championship varsity team the Salem Lions!"

Once again loud and enthusiastic cheers rang out across the pitch and Harry found himself grinning as he realized he was still a lion.

A moment later, seven figures dressed in red qudditch robes flew in the stadium in a modified hawks head formation. After buzzing the crowd, much to everyone's delight and continued cheers, the varsity team landed on the stage. Dropping their brooms they pickup up Coach Strickland and holding him in the air above their heads walked off the stage and into the crowd.

Harry laughed as he watched them pass the Coach to the crowd who continued to pass him around.

Pulling Harry down next to her so she could talk into his ear and be heard over the crowd Kaela explained. "It's tradition. He'll make an entire lap around the fire and be put back on the stage. The legend is that if he doesn't touch the ground we'll have a winning season."

Nodding his head in understanding, Harry watched as he was passed all the way around the fire before being deposited back on the stage. Cheers once again rang out as he made it back to the podium having not touched the ground.

"I have two things to say about that." The Coach said as the cheering stopped. "One, it's going to be a good season!" Yet again the cheering and clapping was thunderous. "And two, someone out there has very cold hands!"

Laughter rolled through the crowd and Harry and Kaela shared a look and a chuckle both grinning widely.

"Lions! Lions! Lions!" The coach began the chant which was quickly picked up by the rest of the crowd.

Eventually the chanting died down and everyone began talking amongst themselves again.

"Harry!" a voice yelled not far from where he was standing with Kaela. Looking up he saw a girl with long blond hair approaching with a large grin on her face. As she got closer he recognized her as the girl he had met when he arrived at the school.

"Hi. Umm, Jen right?"

Jen's smile got even bigger as she realized he remembered her. "You remembered! How's everything going so far? Has anyone shown you around? Cause I'd be happy too."

Kaela felt a twinge of possessiveness and grabbed Harry's hand without thinking. "I showed him around." she said throwing a smile at the other girl.

"Oh, hi. I'm Jen." the girl said offering a hand to Kaela.

"Kaela." she replied greeting Jen with her free hand.

Seeing their linked hands Jen turned back to Harry. "Sorry, didn't know you had a girlfriend. Well it was good to see you again." she said smiling and turning to leave. "Nice to meet you Kaela."

"See you Jen." said a stunned Harry.

"You too." Kaela replied to the other girl.

Harry slowly turned towards Kaela to find her still looking towards a retreating Jen. Looking down he found himself staring at their entwined hands and thinking about what Jen had said.

When Jen had disappeared into the crowd Kaela turned to find Harry staring down. Following his line of sight she noticed she had taken hold of his hand. She was a little shocked and tried to pull away but Harry didn't let go, instead looking up to meet her eyes.

The pair stared at each other for a long minute before slowly moving in to share another kiss.

The kiss was slow and tender and Kaela felt like she was lifting off from the ground. Her world was spinning as she melted into the embrace. It felt so right, so wonderful and she never wanted it to end.

Harry couldn't believe he was being so forward. Her lips felt so soft and amazing pressing against his own. The world around them slowly melted away until everything but him and the girl in his arms ceased to exist and his entire body buzzed as he held her against him.

As the kiss ended they parted slightly staring into each others eyes for another long minute before Kaela's thoughts that he might be doing this because she looked like Ginny returned. Tears came to her eyes and she pushed herself away from him backing up several steps.

"Kaela…" Harry said stepping towards her.

"No." she replied softly slowly shaking her head from side to side and taking another step back. "I… can't… I don't… I…" Unable to find the words she finally turned and ran away.

"Kaela!" Harry yelled behind her. He tried to follow but lost her in the crowd.

* * *

After running all the way from the quidditch pitch back to the dorms, it was a breathless and panting Harry that knocked on the door to Kaela's room. 

"Hey Harry." Mary said opening the door to find her roommates friend.

"Hi Mary, is Kaela here?" he managed to get out between breaths.

Mary gave him an odd look. "No, I thought she went with you to the bonfire?"

"She did, but… something happened and she ran off. Any idea where she might be?"

Kaela's roommate was getting very curious now. "Really? What happened!"

"Mary!"

"Alright, alright, I haven't seen her but when she needs to think she usually ends up on the roof."

"Cool, thanks!" Harry said quickly before running off.

"Hey, don't you want to know how to get up there?" Mary hollered after him. Shaking her head when Harry didn't turn around she smiled and closed the door.

Harry ran back down to his room and quickly pulled his Firebolt out of his trunk. Throwing open the window he jumped out pulling the broom between his legs as he fell. Pulling back hard he pushed the broom upwards until he passed the top of the building where he leveled his flight. Scanning across the rooftop, he found the object of his search sitting on a small bench on one end of the building that someone had made from a couple of cinder blocks and a board.

She was staring out across the square to the quidditch pitch where the bonfire still burned brightly. Her legs were pulled up against her with her arms wrapped around and she had tear streaks on her cheeks.

Landing on the roof, Harry walked up beside her and sat down. They sat in silence for a long while staring down at the bonfire before Harry spoke softly. "I'm sorry."

Kaela wiped the tears from her face and turned to face Harry.

"I didn't mean to hurt you, I really care about you Kaela. I'm sorry for what ever I did to upset you, I didn't mean too."

Kaela let out a small snort and a small smile graced her features briefly before quickly disappearing. "It's not you're fault Harry, you didn't do anything wrong."

"But you got upset and left, I thought,"

"No," she said cutting him off, "it's not you, it's me."

Harry looked confused as Kaela turned back towards the bonfire. She was quiet for a long time before continuing. "I'm scared. I'm scared that you really want Ginny and are only with me because we look alike."

She turned back to Harry but stopped him before he could say anything. "I know you would never do that, but it's still on my mind. I want to be with you so much but I just can't seem to get past this for some reason."

"Kaela." Harry said putting his arm around her.

Once again she stopped him from talking and looked into his eyes. "I still want to be best friends. I wouldn't give that up for anything. I want more but I think you need to see Ginny before we try anything."

Harry looked deeply into her eyes seeing the emotions whirring around inside their soft blue depths. He could see the fear of rejection she carried, the love and trust, and the hope that he would do this for her. He could tell she was confused and knew if he wanted more he could take it and she would willingly be his, but he also knew she was asking him for help. She was letting him know that she had fallen for him but was insecure about his feelings.

Truth be told as he stared into her eyes and thought about it he couldn't say for sure that he wasn't initially attracted to her because of the similarities she had to Ginny who he had been crushing on during their correspondence over the summer. He knew it had grown beyond that and was sure the feelings he had for her were and her alone because of the person she was but he also knew she was right. He needed to see Ginny.

After staring into her eyes for several minutes, Harry pulled her down and lightly kissed her forehead. After pulling away he looked into her eyes and smiled. He could see her thanks as she returned his smile with one of her own and he sat up pulling her next to him where she laid her head on his shoulder. Together they sat watching the quidditch pitch until the bonfire died away.

* * *

- **

* * *

AN:** Hey all, I hope you like this one. It was supposed to have stuff on classes and quidditch, but it would have been a lot longer than the other chapters are set to be so I decided to break it up a bit. The transitional stuff is almost over and things will start happening again probably at the end of the next chapter. Thanks for all the great reviews, I'm glad so many of you are enjoying my story! 

There's a lot of speculation and wishing going on as to what the pairing will end up being. Unfortunately I can not make everyone happy, sorry. I have completed the outline though I continue to adjust it as needed and do know what the end pairing will be, though I'm still not saying (grins). As far as this story is concerned, the pairing is only a side note and not really important to the story. Why then am I spending so much time setting it up? Probably because the way this story ends sets up a sequel perfectly and some of the ideas I have percolating in the back of my mind for that will use much of what is being setup here. In other words, this story sets up a lot of things for the next one. Besides, it's fun!

Several of you have wondered about Hedwig. I meant to put some more in about that but apparently forgot too. Harry and the group are not surprised that Hedwig did not return. They knew there was a good chance of that happening and know where she is staying.

I get the occasional comment about my spelling and grammar not being the best. I know. I should probably use a beta or two or three, but I like being able to post when I feel like it or when I finish a chapter instead of waiting for beta. Perhaps someday I'll change or get someone to beta what I've written so far and repost.

Once again, thanks for all of your reviews! I'm not going to drop this story regardless, but they definitely help keep me motivated!


	12. Classes and Quidditch

**Chapter 12 – Classes and Quidditch**

"Harry! Harry! Time to get up man."

Harry slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hey Jack."

Jack just shook his head. "Better jump in the shower before the guy's next door figure out its open.

"Yeah, ok." Harry mumbled as he tiredly climbed out of bed.

After grabbing a change of clothes from his dresser, Harry walked sleepily to the bathroom to begin getting ready for the day. A little while later he returned to his room now fully awake. Picking up his schedule he noticed he had math, charms and history today. After placing the appropriate books in his new backpack, Harry left his room and headed down the hall to the elevator pads.

"Going down?" a small girl said from one of the pads.

Looking up, Harry almost laughed out loud. One of the pads had what looked to be about thirty people crammed onto it. Arms and legs of unknown people stuck out at odd angles and one person was even perched on top of the oddly shaped group of people.

"Umm, that's ok, I'll wait for the next one." Harry said with a smile.

"Oh, come on. We can squeeze you in." Another girl said waving him over.

"Ok." Harry said unsure of how they were going to do it.

As he stepped forward the group shifted a bit until a small opening appeared on one side, a very small opening. Harry tried a couple of times but couldn't seem to get completely on the pad.

"Damn, hurry up dude, I can't last much longer in here." a voice said from somewhere inside the pile.

Taking a deep breath, Harry stepped forward and thrust one leg into the unknown depths of the group of people. An arm followed and thus entangled in the crowd he finally managed to get completely on the pad.

"Wait for me!" a voice said from across the common area.

Harry looked across the space to find Kaela's roommate Mary approaching the group.

"Alright, but you'll have to jump on top. I'll activate as soon as you land." the girl who had initially invited Harry to join them cried out.

"Cool! Ready?"

"Yeah, yeah, just hurry!" another random voice yelled.

Mary ran across the room and jumped onto a nearby chair before vaulting herself on top of the group. The instant her weight became part of the mess of people, the small girl shouted out "Lobby!"

Once again Harry felt the sensation of unimaginable speed before the group landed in the main Lobby of the dorm. The pile of people immediately collapse spewing forth bodies in all directions. As he began extracting himself from the group, he looked up to find people standing around cheering. He helped several people up before he started to head towards the kitchens when Mary stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Wait Harry, you've got to add your name to the wall. We set a record!"

"What?" he asked curiously as Mary led him to what looked like a small cork board on the wall to one side of the pads.

"We had thirty three people on that pad that beats the old record by two!" she said excitedly.

Grabbing a pen that was hanging on one side of the board, she quickly signed her name before handing it to Harry. Grinning at her excitement, Harry signed his name just below hers. Turning around, Harry and Mary found a laughing Kaela grinning at them.

"Nice one Harry. Here less than a day and already you've been immortalized." she said teasingly.

Harry just grinned already loving his new school. "Breakfast?" he asked the laughing redhead.

"Sure." she said accepting his arm. Mary quickly took his other one not wanting to be left out and the trio headed towards the cafeteria.

"So, does that kind of thing happen a lot here?" Harry asked laughing as they went.

* * *

Eventually Harry and his friends finished breakfast and it was time to go to their first classes of the day. All of the students at Salem had several requirements in various muggle classes they had to meet in order to graduate. The only one Harry had been unable to test out of had been math. 

Kaela and Mary had both finished their math requirement the previous year so Harry would have to attend his first class alone. Not having a morning class, Kaela offered to show him where he needed to go.

"You ok?" Harry asked as they walked across the square.

Kaela looked up at him and smiled softly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

Harry nodded and tentatively took hold of her hand. Internally he sighed in relief when she gave his hand a small squeeze. They continued walking to the large concrete and glass building that housed the classroom he was looking for before saying goodbye.

"See you in charms Harry." she said with a wave before disappearing back the way they had come.

Taking a deep breath, Harry entered the door to his first class. As he walked in the door, he found himself standing at the bottom of a large auditorium that was rapidly filling with students. Several people walked past him and began climbing the various sets of stairs as Harry looked around the large terraced room. About half way across he saw the small girl who had invited him to join the group on the pad that morning waving at him. He gave her a wave back and saw her gesture him over.

"Hey." she said as he approached. "Harry right?"

Harry nodded.

"I'm Sarah. Nice work this morning by the way. You put us over the top, Mary was just the icing on the cake." she said in a bubbly voice.

"No problem. Anyone sitting here?"

"No, have a seat." she said smiling.

The pair talked for a few minutes longer until a small bald man entered the room carrying a briefcase which he plopped down on a small table before stepping up to the podium. Drawing his wand, the man pointed it to his throat and cast a spell so that he could be heard throughout the large room.

"Good morning class. That's it, settle down now. Thank you. I am Professor Blackthorn. Welcome to Intermediate Algebra. I see a lot of familiar faces out there and many new ones as well." The man's eyes scanned the crowd as he spoke pausing briefly on Harry as he went by. 'It couldn't be.' he thought before shaking his head clear of the thoughts he was having and continuing with the class at hand.

With a wave of his wand, a course syllabus appeared on a large screen covering the wall behind him. "Alright everyone, lets get too it."

* * *

"Hey Harry!" Kaela greeted her friend as he walked out of his math class. 

"Hey Kaela." he replied smiling. "See ya Sarah."

"Make a new friend?" Kaela asked.

"Yeah, she was part of the record breaking team on the pad thing this morning."

"Cool. Well, come on. We don't want to be late for charms."

Harry followed along chatting about his first class as the pair made their way across the way to the next building where their charms class was located. Entering the room, Harry was happy to find a much smaller class waiting for him. Before they could take a seat, a cheerful looking witch entered the room and immediately began taking charge.

"Alright everyone time to start class. I want everyone to grab a partner and take a seat at one of the tables."

"Partners?" Harry asked to a grinning Kaela who nodded in reply before leading the way to a table near the front.

"Excellent." the teacher began as everyone finished taking their seats. "For those of you who don't know me I'm Professor Tegrins, but please call me Melissa or I'll have to charm your socks to not stop at my classroom."

A chuckle passed through the room at the excitable woman's comments making her smile even more brightly than she already had been. Harry couldn't help but be reminded of his old charms teacher Professor Flitwick. Shaking himself from his thoughts of his old school, Harry turned his attention back to the class at hand.

Pointing to a stack of papers on one corner of her desk, Melissa continued. "These are your course syllabuses for this semester. Don't forget to pick one up on your way out after class. For now if you'll turn to page 148 of your texts and get your wands out we're going to start on a group of charms I know you've all been dying to learn since you moved into the dorms, Spatial Expansion charms."

* * *

Charms passed much quicker than his algebra class and before long Harry found himself leaving the room with a group of other students who were all talking excitedly about what they were learning. With very few exceptions, everyone was making plans for what they were going to do to their dorm rooms once they could get signed off by their teacher. 

"She seemed like a lot of fun." Harry said to Kaela with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, she is fun and she really knows her stuff too."

The pair continued to chat while Kaela led Harry to a large white building that sat on one end of the square.

"What's this?" Harry asked as he looked around.

"Oh sorry, I forgot you don't know your way around yet. This is the main cafeteria on campus."

Kaela pushed open one of the many doors on the front of the building and led Harry inside. The room was very large and filled with small round tables that just big enough to seat four. Along one side there was a long series of cases and tables holding a wide assortment of foods. People on the other side kept filling up the various bins.

Harry followed along as Kaela joined the line of waiting students. The line moved surprisingly quickly and soon Harry found himself nearing a pile of trays. Copying Kaela, Harry grabbed a tray and some silverware before setting it on some runners that ran along the edge of the counter.

"Take whatever you want Harry, at the end you just show them your ID and it gets charged back to the dorms."

Harry nodded and continued to follow Kaela down the line grabbing whatever caught his fancy as he went. Reaching the end of the line he found an old woman wearing a hairnet. Passing her his student ID card, he watched curiously as she waved her wand over his tray before tapping the card twice with her wand and handing it back.

"Thank you sonny." she said with a smile.

After stuffing his ID back in his pocket, Harry picked up his tray and followed Kaela to a table in the middle of the room.

"So, how do you like Salem so far?" Kaela asked taking a bite of her salad.

"It's loads different than what I'm used to, but I love it!" Harry replied excitedly.

Kaela couldn't help but grin at his enthusiasm.

"Harry, Kaela, whats' up guys?" Jack said as he approached the pair.

"Hey Jack." Harry greeted his new roommate with a wave.

"You mind?" Jack asked indicating the open seats at the table.

"Not at all, have a seat."

"Thanks. I thought you guys might want to know Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow afternoon." Jack made his comment about the tryouts casually as he took a bite and couldn't help but grin at the looks that appeared on Harry and Kaela's faces as the pair shared a smile of their own.

"Kick ass!" Kaela said as she turned towards Jack. "So, you ready to give up the seeker position to Harry?"

"What?" Jack said not expecting the question. "He really that good?"

"Damn straight. You're gonna have your work cut out for you tomorrow Jack." Kaela replied causing Harry to blush.

"Oh, I'm not that great." Harry said bashfully.

"Yeah, right, that's why you're the only person at Salem who's in Quidditch Through the Ages."

"Shut it Moore." Harry growled in embarrassment thought he was grinning inside.

"No shit?" Jack said. "I haven't seen the new edition yet, that's cool man."

Harry blushed slightly and sent Kaela an evil look much to her amusement. "Awe, it was nothing, just got lucky really."

The three spent an enjoyable lunch talking about Quidditch and the upcoming trials before it was finally time to go to their next class. Laughing at Kaela's grumbles about not wanting to go to History, Harry smiled and followed her out the door. The building which housed their history class was the same one where Harry'd had his math class and before he knew it, Harry found himself in another large auditorium. He continued to follow Kaela who chose a seat much higher up than he'd had for his math class.

"Come on Harry. If you want to sit with me we're going up top."

"And what is it you want to do way up there?" Harry asked wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Kaela let out a snort. "You wish. Maybe I'll play some Tic-Tac-Toe or Hangman, if you're good."

Harry laughed and continued to follow Kaela to some seats near the top. Students continued to file in and Harry was surprised to find the auditorium was almost full when the teacher finally arrived.

Their professor was one of the oldest witches Harry had ever seen. He was surprised when she started her lecture that instead of hiding behind the podium, she moved about the stage in a very animated way. She jumped around and waved her arms wildly reenacting the different scenes of history she was describing. It was clear she was passionate about the subject she taught and it made learning the information fun an interesting.

The class passed far quicker than Harry ever dreamed a History class could and after a quick walk across campus, he found himself back at the dorms stepping onto a green circle with Kaela. As they appeared on their floor, Kaela turned towards her friend.

"We don't have anymore classes today, do you want to go fly for awhile?"

Harry couldn't help but grin. "That would be brilliant."

The pair quickly threw their things in their rooms and grabbed their brooms. Harry wanted to fly from the dorms but Kaela informed him that they weren't allowed to fly around the grounds and that their brooms would be confiscated if they got caught. Not wanting to loose his broom, Harry quickly agreed that it might be a good idea to walk to the pitch.

* * *

Artimus Blackthorn waved as the final student left his last class of the day and began collecting his things. Picking up his now loaded briefcase, he went to the buildings transport pads and called out the destination for the teacher's quarters. As the familiar sensation of porting passed, Artimus stepped off the red pad he had appeared on in to the comfortable and lavishly decorated common area of the teacher's apartments. 

Waving to some of his fellow instructors, Artimus passed through the space and down a hall to his quarters. Placing his hand on a small pad to one side of the door, a warm tingle went through his skin and there was an audible click letting him know the door had been unlocked.

Entering the apartment, he closed the door behind him before passing through the living room to his study. Tossing his briefcase on a chair he took a seat behind the desk and began shuffling through the large mound of papers on its surface. After several minutes he came across the document he had been looking for and began scanning the many names on the list.

"Ahh, here it is." he said to the empty room as he reached the names of the students in his first class of the day.

The sight of the boy in the first row had been unexpected and had filled his thoughts for most of the day. As he scanned the list, his thoughts were confirmed. "Harry Potter." he once again whispered to the empty room. "I thought so."

Setting the class roster aside, Artimus picked up a piece of parchment and a quill to begin a letter.

_Dear Headmaster Dumbledore…_

* * *

Classes the next morning passed far slower for Harry and Kaela with the thought of an afternoon of Quidditch waiting for them but eventually lunch came and went and the pair headed down to the stadium with their brooms in hand. As they neared their goal, Harry became nervous at the sight that greeted him. 

"What the hell?" he said uneasily as he took in the sight of the pitch.

Kaela couldn't help but giggle. "Oh, did I forget to mention the whole school would turn up to watch tryouts?"

Harry shot her a glare that caused her to break down in hysterics before turning back to the pitch. The stands were nearly full and a large crowd of people were still lined up to get inside. As he looked around, he realized the hill above the pitch which they were now walking down was also packed with people. Above the pitch itself dozens of wizards and witches flew about on their brooms no doubt warming up for the tryouts.

Instead of heading for the pitch, Kaela led Harry to some tables that were setup on one side of the hill overlooking the stadium.

"Come on Harry. We need to sign in over here then we can fly onto the pitch."

"I thought we weren't allowed to fly around the campus."

"We're not, but they make an exception for today since it would take forever to get through the crowd."

Harry nodded in understanding and stepped up to the table where he was greeted by one of the many students checking in prospective Quidditch players.

"Position?" a boy asked.

"Seeker." Harry replied.

"Name?"

"Harry Potter."

The boy's eyes made the flick upward towards Harry's scar. Groaning internally Harry realized there were bound to be a few people around who recognized him as The Boy Who Lived.

"Cool. Nice to meet you." the boy said excitedly.

Harry took a pair of signs the boy handed him that each had a number 73 on them and moved to one side where Kaela was waiting for him.

"Here." she said taking the signs from him.

Holding the number up to his chest, she made sure it was centered and level and pressed it against him where it stuck to his clothing. She repeated the process sticking the other one on his back.

"Now mine." she said handing him a number 72 for her back.

Turning back around she was grinning at him. "Sorry, I already did the one for my front."

Harry's eyes flicked downward for a second before he blushed brightly causing Kaela to start laughing again. "Come on Harry, let's go fly."

Shaking his head at her antics, he mounted his broom and raced her to the stadium. They flew around the pitch for awhile before everyone was finally waved down when the tryouts were ready to begin.

"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Coach Strickland. Call me coach. Now, lets get too it. Across the pitch you'll find my assistant coaches holding up signs for each position. Find yours and get to it." The coach looked at all the faces of the hopefuls and sighed. "Now people! Move!" he roared causing everyone to scatter.

"Good luck Harry!" Kaela said giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"You too." he replied as she ran off to join the chasers.

His hand came up to touch the spot where she had kissed him for a few seconds before he smiled and went to join the other seeker hopefuls.

Letting out a chuckle as the crowd ran off, Coach Strickland moved towards the first and smallest group. "Seekers, go take a seat, you're last."

A groan went through the group causing Coach to smile before he went to the next group. The crowd always liked the seeker tryouts the best so every year he saved them until last. And every year the group groaned as they'd just done.

The Coach with the help of his assistants took the groups through a series of drills making notes about their performance all the while. Eventually he moved up to something resembling a game where there was a keeper, two beaters and three chasers on the field. The chasers tried to score while the keeper guarded the hoops and the beaters tried to knock them off their brooms. During the exercise, the coach was constantly rotating the hopefuls through the various positions. Finally after several long hours, the coach decided he had seen enough and instructed everyone to land.

"Excellent work up there people. I know you're all excited to find out who will be on the varsity team this year but with one exception you'll have to wait until lunch tomorrow to find out. That exception is of course the seeker. If you'll all take a seat on the edge of the pitch and the seeker hopefuls will join me in the middle we'll get started."

There was a mad scramble as everyone who had just finished trying out grabbed a seat off the pitch while the seekers stepped forward. Coach Strickland grinned as ten students followed him out to the middle of the pitch. He knew exactly who Harry Potter was and had been looking forward to this tryout ever since he had found out he was going to be attending Salem.

It didn't take long for the hopefuls to join him forming a loose half circle in front of where he was standing. He didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, just looked at them silently while he awaited the arrival of a special trunk. A minute later one of his assistant coaches appeared and set it on the ground in front of him.

"Alright, in case you don't know how this works I just want you to know that by the end of this practice one of you will be named the varsity seeker for the lions."

Silence met the coach's words but the anticipation and excitement could be felt heavy in the air. After looking at the group of students for another minute, Coach Strickland kicked the lid of the box open and dozens of snitches shot out, zipping away across the pitch.

"On three you're to catch as many as you can until you hear the whistle blow. Got it?"

Receiving nods from the hopefuls the coach grinned. "Three!" he shouted.

Most of the group looked around confused but Harry and two others immediately shot into the air and began hunting the small golden balls. The crowd around the stadium was a mixture of cheering and laughter as they watched the scene unfolding below. It didn't take the other seekers long to realize what had happened and join in the hunt.

Harry felt the familiar thrill of flight wash over him as he took to the air. Almost immediately he spotted a snitch and thrust his broom towards it. A moment later he had the small ball in his hand and was looking for another one. Spotting a pair of the balls near one of the towers, he shoved the one he'd caught in his shirt and pointed his broom towards the new ones.

Just as he reached the two balls they shot off in opposite directions. Pulling back hard, his feet brushed against the tower as he changed direction to follow one of the elusive golden orbs. Another seeker was climbing rapidly towards his prey but with a slight course correction he was able to lean forward on his broom and snatch it out of the air just before the other seeker arrived. With two caught, he zoomed off across the pitch to find some more.

Kaela watched the tryouts with her heart bouncing around inside her chest. Her eyes were locked on Harry as he zoomed across the pitch grabbing every snitch he encountered with what looked like a practiced ease. Her stomach would flutter as he would pass close to where she was sitting and she would see the large smile on his face. Her heart would rise up into her throat as he would aim for a tower or the ground only to plummet again as he pulled out, narrowly missing crashing into one or the other. Yes, she would definitely have to kill him for doing this to her when the tryouts were over.

Eventually the whistle sounded and all of the seekers landed around the coach.

"Starting on the left, sound off." he said.

Looking towards the opposite end of the line he was in, Harry saw a small boy holding a single snitch in his hand.

"One Coach."

The coach nodded and a man standing next to him with a clipboard noted a one next to the number the boy was wearing.

"Three Coach."

"Two Coach."

"Three Coach."

The hopefuls continued to sound off most having caught one or two, and only one having caught four when they finally reached Harry.

"Sound off son." the coach said as Harry fumbled around inside his shirt.

"Umm, I'm trying coach."

The coach let out a chuckle as Harry fumbled around pulling the snitches he had caught out of his shirt. Seeing he was having trouble holding them all he stepped forward to help. Once they were all out, the coach step back and called out again.

"Alright, now sound off."

"Fourteen Coach." Harry said.

"Nice work Potter." he said though Harry was barely able to hear him over the roar of the crowd.

The coach tapped the top of the chest with his wand three times and all of the snitches he had released earlier zoomed back into the box before one of the assistants closed and carried it away.

"Good job you lot. Some of you will be selected for our other squads but we need to select our varsity chaser for this year. You can all take a seat except for Potter."

Harry swallowed heavily and was surprised when he was joined by his roommate Jack and minute later.

"Sup Harry." Jack said extending his hand.

"Hey Jack."

"Nice job by the way."

"Thanks."

"Enough chit chat you two." the coach said interrupting their greeting. Reaching in his pocket he pulled out another snitch. "Games simple enough, whoever catches the snitch, gets to start varsity. Fair enough?"

Receiving a nod from both Harry and Jack, the coach threw the snitch into the air. "Three!"

Harry and Jack shot into the air like they were being chased by the devil himself. Both could see the snitch zipping through the air just ahead of them and both wanted to catch it more than they wanted anything else in the world right now.

The snitch led them high above the stands before shooting off across the pitch in a zig zag pattern that had both the seekers wondering what it was going to do next. A moment later it went into a steep dive with the pair hot on its trail. Their speed increased as the earth came nearer and nearer before the snitch finally leveled off a few feet above the ground. Harry pulled out just in time brushing his feet slightly against the grass but Jack wasn't so lucky. His feet contacted the ground hard causing him to loose his balance and he pulled up a little too hard overcompensating for hitting the ground. The result was that he was now a couple lengths behind by the time he required Harry and the snitch.

Flying along a few feet off the ground, Harry knew he was in the clear to catch the snitch and pushed his broom forward, reaching out beyond its tip as he stretched his body towards the little ball. Just as he was about to grab it, the snitch reversed course, slamming into his outstretched hand. Already unsteady from the position he was in, the snitch knocked him backwards off the broom. He rolled over backwards once through the air before impacting Jack who was just behind him and they both fell onto the ground in a tangled heap of limbs.

All noise left the stadium as the pair lay still on the grass for a minute until Harry managed to shake the dizziness from his head and sit up. "You ok Jack?"

"Damn that hurt." Jack said letting out a little cough. "But yeah, I think I'll live. You get it?"

Looking down at his hand, Harry hadn't even realized he was holding the snitch until Jack had asked. "Yeah, I did." he said with a grin. Holding the winged ball up high over his head, the silence was broken as the crowed roared with approval.

The trainers ran forward and quickly gave the pair a once over before giving their approval and letting the two go. Coach Strickland accepted the snitch from Harry and gave him a pat on the shoulder before turning to address the crowd.

"I'm proud to announce the Lions Seeker for the varsity team this year will be Harry Potter!"

Another roar ripped through the crowd at his announcement before they all rushed the field. Almost immediately Harry found himself in the middle of the spectacle being patted on the back and congratulated by everyone who could reach him. After several minutes, he felt a hand grab his shoulder and spin him around before pulling him into a bone crushing hug.

"I knew you could do it Harry!" said an excited Kaela. After a minute she pulled back slightly. "But I swear I'll kill you myself if you keep scaring me like that!"

Harry grinned sheepishly before she pulled him in for another hug. Eventually she loosened her hold on him so other well wishers could congratulate their new seeker though she did not let go.

* * *

Harry and Kaela were joined by Jack again at lunch the next day. Harry had been worried that his roommate would be upset about loosing his seeker position but was surprised when Jack had been truly happy for him. 'It's only a game.' he had said. 

They were about half way through lunch when cheering was heard at one end of the cafeteria and the group realized the results of the tryouts had been posted. Harry looked next to him to find Kaela looking very nervous. He was pretty sure she was thinking about fleeing the cafeteria.

"Come on ." he said grabbing her hand before she could get away.

"I… I don't know…"

Harry chuckled and pulled her up from her seat. "Chicken?"

Kaela's eyes narrowed as she looked up to find him laughing at her. Squeezing his hand tightly, she pulled him through the crowd to the posting. Taking a deep breath she stepped forward and began reading the list. A loud squeal escaped her lips and she spun around in excitement when she found her name listing her as being part of the varsity squad.

"I did it! I'm on the varsity team!" she screamed loudly.

Unable to control her self she jumped into Harry's arms and gave him a big kiss. The crowd around them started cheering loudly bringing Kaela back to herself. Realizing what she was doing, she quickly ended the kiss and lowered herself to the ground.

"Err… Sorry."

Harry couldn't help but grin at the abashed look on her face. "Don't worry about it. Congratulations."

Leaning forward he placed a kiss on her cheek getting a smile in return.

* * *

-

* * *

**AN:** Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, I just haven't been able to get myself to work on my existing stories lately. I haven't been completely idle though, I had several ideas bouncing around in my head and decided to write them down as single chapters to use later thinking this would get them out of my head and let me get back to this one. After I wrote a few of them I realized they all fit together really well as a single story and the next thing I know I've got another story that's sitting at about 70,000 words right now. I figure it's somewhere around half way done. Not sure when I'm gonna post it, I've already got several half done stories out there so I'm not sure if I want to post another one half done and risk not working on it or wait until its completed. 

Lots of mixed reviews for Kaela, I know this story is currently weighted fairly heavily in the romance area, but that will become secondary very shortly as things get rolling once again. Much of the last couple of chapters has been transitional but as you hopefully picked up on, things will begin happening again soon.

Kinsfire – I love it that you're trying to figure out where the school I've described is but you'll never succeed for two reasons. One, I've never been to Salem so made it up completely and two, you're a muggle so the repelling wards will keep you from finding it. Grins!

As always, I can't thank you all enough for reading and reviewing. My single biggest gripe from the reviewers is that I don't update enough and while I can't promise anything, I'll try. Thanks again everyone!


	13. Found

**Chapter 13 – Found**

Albus Dumbledore sat behind the large desk in his office starring blankly across the room. Thoughts of the Order, Voldemort, his grandson and especially Harry Potter weighed heavily on his mind. For years he had managed to keep his pawns lined up in a neat little row and now for some unknown reason, his plans were beginning to unravel.

His thoughts were centered mainly on a boy who until recently had fallen into line with his machinations perfectly. What he couldn't seem to figure out was what had caused the sudden change and where he had disappeared too.

As he continued to ponder the mystery that was Harry Potter, a bedraggled and exhausted looking owl flew in the window and practically collapsed on his desk. Removing a scroll of parchment from the owl's leg he noticed the wax seal bore the crest of a school he hadn't visited in many years.

Hoping the letter contained some of the answers he was looking for, Dumbledore quickly broke the Salem seal and unrolled the letter.

_Dear Headmaster Dumbledore,_

_Getting straight to the point, I have found Harry Potter. He is currently enrolled as a student here at Salem. All students attending American Wizarding Schools are required to meet certain minimum standards in muggle subjects and Mr. Potter is enrolled in my Intermediate Algebra class. After spotting an individual I believed to be him, I verified his identity on the student roster._

_Another bit of good news, I continue to detect no Death Eater activity in or about the school or surrounding town._

_Sincerely,  
__Professor Artimus Blackthorn  
__Applied Mathematics, Salem Academy of Magic_

A large grin crept up on Dumbledore's face as he read the news Blackthorn had sent him. No one in the Order knew of Dumbledore's spies abroad and having received little valuable information from them over the years, he often wondered if they would be better used locally, but no more. He no longer had any doubts as to their worth.

Standing up from his desk, Dumbledore began to pace back and forth across his office as he tried to decide the best course of action. His initial thought was to go to America and confront the teen but he quickly dismissed the idea. It seemed clear that Harry and probably Remus had a problem of some sort with him and he felt it would be best to try to find out more information before confronting either of them.

Stepping towards the fireplace, Dumbledore grabbed a bit of floo powder from a small dish on the mantel and threw it into the flames. "The Burrow." he said clearly as he kneeled before the fire.

A minute later Molly's head appeared in the fireplace. "Hello Albus. What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Good evening Molly. I was wondering if Arthur was available."

"I believe he's tinkering about in his shed, would you like to wait while I fetch him for you?"

"No, no, that's quite alright. I do have some important matters to discuss with him however, could you please have him come to Hogwarts as soon as he is able." Dumbledore said with a smile on his face that was designed to put her at ease.

"Of course Albus, I'll tell him right away."

After wishing each other a good evening, Molly's face disappeared from the fireplace and Albus returned to his desk to work out what he was going to say to Arthur and create a portkey.

* * *

"Come in Arthur." Dumbledore greeted the red haired man as he was about to knock on his office door. 

"Hello Albus." Arthur said with a smile.

"Lemon drop?" asked the Headmaster.

"No thank you." he replied instead taking a seat across from Albus in front of the large desk.

"Molly said you wanted me to come by to see you?" he finally inquired. It was beginning to get late and he really wanted to get home.

"Ah yes, I apologize for tearing you away from your family at this late hour but something of the utmost importance has come up that I need your help with."

Mr. Weasley looked back curiously. "Of course Albus, what's happened."

Dumbledore took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "First I must ask you to keep what we are about to discuss between the two of us. As I'm sure you will agree when you hear what I have to tell you, we can not afford for this information to become public knowledge."

"Alright." Arthur agreed becoming slightly nervous at the seriousness with which Dumbledore was speaking to him.

After looking at Arthur for another long minute over his half moon spectacles, Dumbledore told him the news. "I have found Harry Potter."

"What!" Arthur exclaimed in a hope filled voice as he edged forward until he was sitting on the edge of his seat.

Dumbledore couldn't help but smile at the man sitting before him. "Yes Arthur it is true, I have located Mr. Potter."

"Well what are we sitting here for? We need to go see him!" he said jumping up from his seat.

"Please Arthur, have a seat." Dumbledore said gesturing towards the chair Arthur had just vacated as he continued to smile. "I've actually asked you to come here so that I could send you to Mr. Potter to speak with him."

"You aren't coming?" he asked curiously.

"Alas I suspect I may be the cause for many of the reasons Mr. Potter decided to leave as he did and do not believe my presence would be conducive to convincing him to return."

"What did you do? Why did he leave?"

Dumbledore let out a long sigh. "Unfortunately I do not know. Neither I nor anyone else has been given any reasons for Harry's sudden and unexpected departure. I can only guess and do not particularly wish to toss about idle speculation. I would most appreciate it if you could find out what his motivations were when you speak with him."

"Ok Albus, I'll do what I can."

"Very good. Now," Dumbledore said handing Arthur a quill, "Harry is currently attending a wizarding school in America. This portkey will take you to Salem just outside the schools wards. Once you convince Harry to return with you, tap the portkey twice and it will return you both here to my office."

"What if Harry doesn't want to return?" Arthur asked a little nervous about what the response would be.

"Please just do your best to convince him. It is not safe for him there, regardless of what he may believe. If I am able to find him, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters will be able to find him as well."

A shiver passed through Arthur at the mention of the Dark Lord's name but he nodded and accepted the quill. Placing it in his pocket, he was about to ask if there was anything else before he left when Dumbledore spoke up.

"Actually I would appreciate it if you would go now."

"But I need to let my wife know I'll be gone and take off work."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of the Ministry and let Molly know you are on a mission for the Order."

Arthur nodded again as he removed the quill from his pocket.

"Good luck Arthur and remember, speak to no one but me about this." Dumbledore reiterated in a serious tone.

"Alright Albus, I'll be back as soon as I can."

A moment later, Arthur Weasley disappeared from the Headmasters office. Dumbledore stared at the spot where Arthur had disappeared from for a long while grinning at the empty room. Finally things were turning around. With any luck he would have Harry back under his control soon and if not, at least he would know what was going on.

* * *

The world spun in a whir of multi colored lights as Arthur port keyed across the ocean to his destination. He had never taken a portkey this far before and as the trip dragged on he began to feel nauseous. Closing his eyes tightly, he gritted his teeth and hoped it would be over soon. Just as he thought he couldn't take anymore, everything came into sharp focus and he fell to his knees. 

Arthur breathed heavily fighting the sickness that threatened to overwhelm him as he tried to clear his mind and focus on the matter at hand. A shudder went through his body as he realized he would have to take another trip just like that one to get home. When he was finally able to think enough to cast a spell, he drew his wand and cast a cure for motion sickness on himself. Feeling a lot better, he stood up and looked around.

Where as it had been well past dinner time when he had left Hogwarts, here it looked to be early afternoon. He found himself standing just inside a wooded area looking up at a building covered hill that he assumed was the school Harry was attending.

Arthur began walking towards the school wondering how he was going to find Harry. He hadn't gone more than a few hundred feet when a pair of individuals wearing official looking uniforms appeared before him with their wands drawn though they weren't pointed at him.

"Can we help you sir?"

"Um, yes, perhaps you can. I've come to see a friend of my family, Harry Potter. I understand he's a student here." Arthur stated hoping the guards would help him.

"Is Mr. Potter expecting you sir?"

"No actually he isn't but I was just here on business and thought I'd stop by and visit."

The man Arthur had been speaking with nodded. "I see, what is your name sir?"

"Arthur Weasley."

"One moment please."

The guard waved his wand and a small translucent ball appeared on its tip. He brought the ball up to his temple and concentrated for a minute before pulling it away and waving the wand again. The ball separated from his wand as he waved it and flew away towards the school. A minute later, the ball returned reattaching itself to the man's wand. Once again he brought it up to his temple, only this time it dissipated as it touched his head.

"Would you mind accompanying us to the administration building Mr. Weasley?" the guard asked after receiving a response to his message.

"I suppose, is there a problem?" Arthur asked beginning to get a little worried.

"Not necessarily sir. As a matter of precaution we have to investigate any unannounced visits to the campus. In the future it would help if you coordinated your visits with administrative services. If you're going to be visiting often, we can issue you a long term pass which in your case would require the permission of a student, the student's guardian and a staff member."

"Ah, I see. Well I doubt that that will be necessary as I don't get over seas very often but thank you for the information."

"No problem."

* * *

Harry had just left potions class when a small intra-school owl landed on his shoulder. "Hey there, you have something for me?" he said petting the owl. 

The small bird held out its leg and Harry removed the note before it flew off. Unrolling the small piece of paper Harry began to read. His eyes opened wide and he felt an uneasiness wash over him as he did.

_To: Harry Potter  
__From: Salem Security_

_A Mr. Arthur Weasley has arrived on campus and wishes to meet with you. It is our understanding that you were not aware of his pending arrival. Mr. Weasley is currently awaiting your arrival in Campus Security office 117 in the Administration Building. If this visit is unwelcome please respond accordingly to this letter and we will escort the individual off campus._

_For your reference as a matter of policy, Administrative Services should be made aware of visitors prior to their arrival whenever possible._

Harry ran his fingers though his hair nervously as he reread the letter. Not sure what to do he took a seat on one of the many benches in the square. Drawing his wand, he tapped the invisible ring on his right hand twice.

* * *

Bella was watching a movie with Remus and Sirius when her ring began to tingle on her finger. Not having expected a call from Harry, Bella sat up and grabbed her hand gaining Remus and Sirius attention. 

"Bella? What is it?" Remus asked.

"It's Harry. He needs us." she said pulling the ring off her finger.

Remus quickly pulled his ring off and traded with her. They realized after enrolling Harry in Salem that Bella wouldn't have access to campus so they had decided if Harry needed anything while he was at school Remus would go. Once he had the master ring on his finger he tapped it twice and a vision of where Harry was appeared in Remus mind. After trading back the rings, Remus quickly made his way to the garage and removed his visitors ID from one pocket. Tapping it twice with his wand, he activated the portkey.

* * *

After a short trip, Remus appeared in the Salem Academy arrival area. Moving quickly, he walked to a desk near the exit where a member of the security staff was sitting and handed his pass to him. 

"Remus Lupin?"

"Yes sir."

"Wand please."

Remus handed over his wand and watched as the guard touched it to his ID verifying his identity with a flash of purple light.

"Thank you Mr. Lupin." the guard said handing back Remus ID card and wand.

After putting away his card and wand, Remus left the arrival point and hurried across the campus looking for Harry. A few minutes later he found him sitting on a bench in the main square just as he had seen with Bella's ring.

"Hey Harry." Remus said as he approached the teen.

"Remus!" Harry replied happily standing up to give his godfather a hug.

"Everything ok? I think Bella about had a heart attack when you used the ring." he said smiling.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry anyone but it was important." Harry said as he handed the note he had received from Campus Security to Remus.

After reading the note, Remus sighed and sat on the bench gesturing for Harry to join him. "Well, we knew he'd find us eventually."

"I suppose, what do you think we should do?" Harry asked nervously.

"It's really up to you Harry, but the simple fact is Dumbledore knows where we are now so you might as well talk to Arthur. Regardless of what Dumbledore ends up doing the Weasley's do care for you and it would probably be a good idea to let them know you're ok."

"Yeah, you're right. Will you go with me?" Harry asked looking at Remus hopefully.

Remus smiled. "Of course Harry. We should be careful about how much we tell Arthur though. I'm sure anything we say will get back to Dumbledore."

Harry nodded in understanding. Getting up from the bench, Harry and Remus went to the Administration Building where they knew Arthur Weasley was waiting for them. They found their way to room 117 and entered to find a long counter with several uniformed individuals working behind it. Stepping up to the counter, they waited to be helped.

"Can I help you?" a friendly witch asked after a minute.

Harry handed the note he had received across the counter to her. "I just received this and would like to see Mr. Weasley if that's ok."

After scanning the note the witch handed it back and pointed to a group of doors at one end of the counter. "Right through there, he's in room three."

"Thank you." Harry and Remus both said as they moved towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, Harry gave Remus one last look before opening the door. The room was fairly large with a fireplace crackling merrily on one end. All around the room sat an assortment of tables, couches and chairs. As they entered Mr. Weasley jumped up from one of the chairs and ran towards the pair.

"Harry!" he said excitedly as he approached wearing a large smile.

Harry was surprised when Remus stepped in between them with a serious look on his face.

"Hello Arthur."

Arthur stopped short looking shocked at Remus behavior. "Remus."

"What are your intentions?" Remus asked simply using a no nonsense tone and cutting straight to the point.

Mr. Weasley was taken aback at the question. "I don't understand what you mean. I'm just happy to see Harry, actually its good too see you as well."

"I mean that you're being here means Dumbledore knows where we are. I have no doubts he's the one who sent you here. The question I have is why? Is it your intention to try and take Harry back with you?"

"What? No. I would never force Harry to go anywhere if that's what you mean, no. Really I just want to make sure he's ok and maybe find out what happened. Yes I would love for him to come home, everyone misses him, but I would never force him." Arthur replied shocked at the very suggestion.

Remus looked at him for a long minute before nodding and offering his hand. Arthur shook it tentatively.

"Hello Mr. Weasley." Harry finally said in greeting as Remus stepped to one side.

Arthur's grin returned at the sight of the boy he considered one of his own. "It's good to see you Harry." He shook Harry's offered hand but couldn't help himself and pulled him in for a quick hug.

"You look like your doing well Harry." Arthur said as he stepped back from the greeting and took a good look at the young man he had come so far to see.

"Thanks, I am. It's been one of the best summers and start to a school year that I can ever remember having."

The group took seats before Arthur asked a question that had been on his and everyone else's minds since he had left. "Why Harry? Why did you leave us?"

Harry let out a long, pained sigh. "I'm sorry Mr. Weasley. I didn't want to leave your family or my friends behind but I just had to leave. I feel like I've been manipulated and used my entire life and I can't take it anymore."

"Is this about the prophecy Harry?" Arthur asked.

Harry and Remus both shared a look of surprise before turning back to Mr. Weasley.

"I didn't think anyone knew it but me and Dumbledore." Harry said.

Arthur took a deep breath and wondered if he had just opened up a can of flobber worms. "There was an Order meeting after you both disappeared. Everyone was very worried and wondered why you had left. Eventually Dumbledore told everyone the prophecy."

Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes. A moment later he felt Arthur's hand on his shoulder and looked up to find concerned eyes looking back. "You didn't have to run away Harry, we all love you and want to help. I'm sure all of your friends will want to stand by you through this, I know Molly and I will."

"Thanks Mr. Weasley." Harry said giving the man a warm smile. "That really means a lot to me. Do you really believe the prophecy?"

Arthur looked at Harry curiously. It had never occurred to him to doubt what he'd been told. "Well, I suppose I do, I mean he couldn't kill you when you were a baby and Dumbledore seems to believe it."

"Well I'm sorry but I don't. How can anyone possibly think I could defeat Voldemort." Harry saw Mr. Weasley flinch at the mention of the Dark Lord's name but let it go. "I mean I'm only in my sixth year and to be honest, it was my mum that defeated him the first time, not me. It was her spell that protected me. I didn't do anything but sit there and let the curse bounce off my forehead."

A short silence settled between the men before Harry spoke again. "How did everyone else take the news of the prophecy?"

"Not so good Harry. Everyone's worried about you and the wizarding world."

"They all think I ran away because I'm afraid to face him don't they?"

Arthur wrung his hands in his lap and looked away for a minute before answering. "Well, not all but some. Snape of course does."

Harry couldn't help but let out a snort. "Of course the greasy git would think that." Making sure he had Arthur's attention, Harry continued. "Yes, the prophecy has a lot to do with why I left, but I'm not scared of facing him. I simply can't believe that I'm the one meant to face him, that I'm the key to his defeat. Even if I was, why hasn't Dumbledore or the Order been training me to fight him?"

Mr. Weasley had no answer to Harry's question.

"Mostly," Harry continued after a short silence, "I'm just sick of being kept in the dark and manipulated. I spent the first ten years of my life living in a cupboard. Do you honestly believe Dumbledore didn't know? I used to think so until it occurred to me my first Hogwarts letter was addressed to Harry Potter in the Cupboard Under the Stairs. He knew that whole time and let it go. What else did he let go? I'm sorry Mr. Weasley, I love and miss you and your family but I'm done. I've made a new life that I love and I'm not about to give it up."

"What about your safety Harry? If we can find you surely the Death Eaters can."

"So I should let myself be locked up at Privet Drive or Grimmauld Place? Be constantly watched and monitored like I'm some sort of criminal? I'm sorry Mr. Weasley but no thanks. I won't go back. I'll take my chances here."

"Harry, please, I just don't want anything to happen too you." Arthur begged.

"Something's happened to me every year I've been at Hogwarts. You'd think that with the Headmaster there looking out for everyone the kind of things that have happened to me wouldn't be possible but here we are. Frankly I feel safer here. I'm sorry Mr. Weasley, but the answer is no. Maybe I can come visit for the holidays or next summer but I'm not going back."

With the matter of Harry's return settled, the conversation turned to more benign topics such as Harry's schooling. The three shared a nice dinner at the campus cafeteria which Mr. Weasley greatly enjoyed. Eventually it became late and Harry returned to the dorms to do his homework while Remus escorted Arthur to the schools arrival building where he could activate his portkey.

* * *

"Is everything ok? What happened?" a very worried and excitable ghost and former Death Eater began questioning as soon as Remus appeared in the garage at their home. 

"Remus looked at them both curiously. "Have you both been waiting in here this entire time?"

Bella rolled her eyes. "Enough! What happened!"

Remus let out a chuckle and couldn't help himself. Normally it would have amazed him how attached and loyal everyone was to Harry, especially Bella who had been on the other side for so long, but being there himself he completely understood.

"Seriously, you could have waited inside where it's more comfortable. You know I would have used the rings if I needed… Ok, calm down…" Remus held up his hands and took a step back as Bella pointed her wand at him. She was clearly not amused.

"Remus?" Sirius asked in a very serious voice.

Letting out a sigh, Remus dropped his hands and looked at the pair. "Arthur Weasley turned up on campus. He knew Harry was there."

A few choice expletives escaped the pair at Remus proclamation.

"So Dumbledore knows where Harry is." Bella stated as she lowered her wand.

"Yes. Looks like he sent Arthur here to find out why we left. Interestingly enough, Dumbledore's told everyone in the Order and Harry's friends the fake prophecy."

"That bastard." Bella said. "So now they all think Harry's a coward who's run away."

"Some do but not all. Mostly everyone's just worried about him. We tried to convince him we don't believe the prophecy and mainly wanted to get away from Dumbledore's manipulations. We didn't mention anything else we know figuring Dumbledore will know everything we discuss."

"So what do we do now?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not sure there's much we can do. We'll just have to see what happens."

* * *

After another nauseatingly long portkey trip, Arthur Weasley appeared in Dumbledore's office and fell to his knees breathing heavily as he had done the first time. Before he even had a chance to take in his surroundings, he felt a spell hit him and the sickness he was feeling vanished. Standing up he found the headmaster offering him a hand up. 

"Thank you Albus. I can't say I like using international portkeys."

After helping Arthur into a chair in front of his desk, Dumbledore took his seat and looked expectantly at Arthur.

"Harry seems to be doing very well at his new school. He's happy and mentioned he's had one of the best summers he can ever remember but I wasn't able to convince him to come back with me."

"I'm glad to hear he's happy Arthur. Did he perhaps mention why he left?"

Arthur seemed to get nervous as he spoke. "Well, it seems like he isn't happy with the way he's been treated by you and the Order, particularly you."

Dumbledore continued to question Arthur for a long while before finally becoming frustrated with the answers he was receiving and drawing his wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Mr. Weasley's eyes grew large as he was frozen in place, frantically looking around the office and at Dumbledore.

"Legilimens!" Dumbledore said casting a second spell.

Pain flowed through Arthur's entire being as Dumbledore tore through his memories of his trip to America with all the subtlety of a raging bull. Eventually Dumbledore saw all he needed to and dropped the probe. After thinking about everything he had seen for several minutes he turned to the still frozen form of Arthur.

"I'm truly sorry my old friend but I'm afraid I needed all the information you possessed on this matter."

With another wave of his wand, Dumbledore released Arthur from his binds. Before he had a chance to move, Dumbledore raised his wand again. "Obliviate!"

Arthur blinked several times to clear his head and found a concerned Albus looking down at him.

"Are you ok Arthur?" Albus asked with apparent concern. "You seemed to wander off for a second there."

"Umm, yes… yes I believe so. I must just be tired from the portkey trip." Arthur managed to get out as he looked around in confusion.

"I'm sure you are. Why don't you go home and get some rest. I've already alerted the Ministry you will be absent today."

"Thank you. I think that would be a good idea." Arthur said standing to leave.

"You may tell Molly about Harry but please don't let the information go any further."

"Thanks again Albus. I'm sure Molly will be very happy to hear he's ok."

With the departure of Arthur Weasley, Dumbledore's twinkle and smile disappeared and he started pacing about his office. He had removed Arthur's memory of him using Legilimency on him. He had wanted to remove the entire trip from Arthur's mind but knew that Harry would be aware his location was now known and might contact his friends. Rather than create a sticky situation for himself he decided it would be best to simply ask Arthur to be discrete with the knowledge he held.

"There has to be a way to use this situation to my advantage." he mumbled out loud to himself as he continued to pace.

It was a long while before his eyes opened wide at the thought of a seemingly inconsequential piece of information Harry had mentioned to Arthur during their conversations, that he was the varsity seeker for his schools Quidditch team. 'Yes, that will do nicely.' he thought as a smile began to grow on his face. It would take some planning and he would have to work quickly but he was pretty sure he would be able to pull it off.


End file.
